Hanoi plans to spend 3,000 billion VND to support boarding meals for primary school students

Hanoi People's Committee plans to spend more than 3,000 billion VND in the 2025-2026 school year to support boarding meals for about 768,000 primary school students in both public and private schools.

The Hanoi People's Committee has just submitted a draft Resolution regulating the mechanism for supporting boarding meals for primary school students in the city for the 2025-2026 school year. Accordingly, Hanoi plans to spend more than VND3,000 billion to support boarding meals for about 768,000 primary school students in public and private schools in the area, of which the public sector will spend about VND2,824 billion and the private sector will spend about VND239 billion.

Specifically, for primary school students studying at educational institutions in mountainous communes and communes in the Red River delta, the support level is 30,000 VND/student/day.

For primary school students studying at schools in the remaining areas of Hanoi, the support level is 20,000 VND/student/day.

Hanoi plans to support boarding meals for primary school students. Illustrative photo

Currently, the organization of boarding meals in this city is being implemented in two forms: schools organize their own cooking or schools cooperate with food suppliers. The fee for boarding meals for public schools ranges from 19,000 - 50,000 VND/student/day, with an average of 30,062 VND/student/day.

For private schools, the fee ranges from 25,000 - 125,000 VND/student/day, with an average of 50,827 VND/student/day.

The Hanoi People's Committee explained that the support for primary school is due to the fact that this level has the largest number of students compared to the other levels. Primary school is also a compulsory level of education with 2 sessions/day, so all schools organize boarding meals for students. Regarding the facilities for serving boarding meals, basically all schools meet the requirements such as dining rooms, kitchens, tables and chairs, equipment, utensils for organizing boarding meals, etc.

In addition, primary school students are in the age of strong physical and mental development, requiring adequate energy and nutrition, so organizing boarding meals for 100% of students at schools is necessary. In addition, students can have lunch at school, parents will not have to struggle to pick up and drop off their children in the middle of the day, saving time and effort, thereby focusing on work.

After implementing the policy for primary school students in the 2025-2026 school year, based on the actual situation and budget balance, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training will summarize and coordinate with relevant units to report to the City People's Committee on support for the remaining levels of education.

The reason why students studying at foreign-invested educational institutions have not been provided with boarding meals is explained by the fact that most of the students here are foreigners, from families with good economic conditions, and are willing to pay tuition and boarding meals much higher than those at public and private educational institutions. In addition, students studying at these educational institutions often change because their children depend on their parents' working time and residence in Vietnam.

Currently, the whole city of Hanoi has 778 primary schools, of which 728 are public schools and 50 are private schools. The number of schools in mountainous communes and communes in the middle of the Red River is 22.

General Secretary To Lam's suggestion that Hanoi should consider free lunch for students immediately received the agreement of all voters and delegates attending the meeting. Many opinions shared about this suggestion and hoped that Hanoi would implement it immediately.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ha-noi-du-kien-chi-3-000-ty-dong-ho-tro-bua-an-ban-tru-cho-hoc-sinh-tieu-hoc-2408448.html