Practical and humane policy
At the 25th Session (taking place from July 8 to 10, 2025), the Hanoi City People's Council passed a Resolution on supporting boarding meals for primary school students, starting from the 2025-2026 school year.
Accordingly, the support level for primary school students in group 1 (studying at 23 educational institutions in mountainous communes and communes in the Red River delta before the time of administrative unit arrangement) is 30,000 VND/student/day for main meals.
For group 2, including primary school students at the remaining educational institutions, the support level is 20,000 VND/student/day. In case parents and schools agree on a higher meal allowance than the State support level, the difference will be collected from the students, ensuring a minimum meal allowance of 30,000 VND/student/day.
The support period is applied in the 2025-2026 school year, based on the actual number of days of meals, not exceeding 9 months/school year. Thus, from the 2025-2026 school year, about 768,000 primary school students in Hanoi, including both public and private schools, will be supported with 20,000 to 30,000 VND/lunch per day. The total estimated cost is more than 3,000 billion VND.
Hanoi City builds the above support policy to implement the suggestion of General Secretary To Lam at the Conference on meeting voters before the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly on April 17, 2025 and continues to pay attention to the education career, school policies, ensuring the quality of teaching and learning, creating the best learning conditions for children in the capital.
Concerns about school meal safety
This practical and humane policy has received the approval of schools, experts and parents. However, many parents said they are still concerned about the quality of meals and food safety issues.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan's family (29 years old) currently has 2 children studying at primary school in Hoang Mai ward (Hanoi). Due to being busy with work, she and her husband chose to register for their children to have meals at school.
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When they heard that Hanoi would support boarding meals for primary school students from the next school year, the couple could not hide their joy. "My husband and I are very happy. With two children going to school, the cost of meals is also a significant amount. Now that we have this support, it will reduce the financial burden on our family," Lan shared.
Ms. Hoang Thi Hien (31 years old, Son Dong commune, Hanoi) shared: "I am happy but still worried about whether this support money will really help my children eat quality, safe meals or not? Recently, there has been a lot of information about dirty food, vegetables and fruits sprayed with pesticides, meat and fish of unknown origin...
Even though the school is committed to ensuring food hygiene and safety, how can parents be completely assured? I'm just worried that my children will eat poor quality food, which will affect their long-term health."
Like Ms. Hien, Mr. Tran Van Hung, who also has a child in primary school, shared: "We are very happy to have this policy, but what we want most is for our children to eat safely. It is important that the quality control of food input in school kitchens must be closely monitored and transparent."
Parents' concerns show that, in addition to financial support, strengthening control and supervision of food safety and hygiene at schools and catering facilities is extremely necessary.
What needs to be done to make the policy effective?
Sharing with PNVN Newspaper, Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Educational Psychology, assessed that Hanoi's implementation of supporting boarding meals for primary school students is a meaningful policy, demonstrating concern for future generations.
"This is a practical policy, bringing many benefits to families, especially young parents with low incomes who are having to worry a lot. When their children are supported with timely and adequate meals at school, parents can reduce the burden of daily expenses, work with peace of mind, stabilize their lives, and still ensure that their children are well cared for and have adequate nutrition," said Dr. Tung Lam.
According to Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, the policy of supporting meals for students is not only material support, but also demonstrates the concern of the State and society for the development of future generations.
This policy is especially meaningful for students who study 2 sessions/day because children do not have their studies interrupted, do not waste time traveling between sessions, ensuring continuous learning while maintaining a stable lifestyle.
However, for the policy to be effective, the most important issue is food hygiene and safety. Schools need to strictly control input materials, processing procedures as well as build a menu that ensures nutrition and is age-appropriate.
"Strengthening inspection, examination, management and supervision of boarding school organization will contribute to ensuring food safety and hygiene in schools are implemented strictly, systematically and effectively, helping parents feel secure when sending their children to school," said Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam.
Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/ha-noi-ho-tro-bua-an-ban-tru-cho-hoc-sinh-tieu-hoc-niem-vui-xen-lan-noi-lo-2025080115182506.htm
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