Parents let their children stay home from school, schools reorganize boarding meals

After the controversy over smelly food being brought into schools and the announcement of stopping the organization of boarding meals, causing hundreds of parents to react and let their children stay home from school, on the evening of October 20, Cu Khe Primary School (Binh Minh Commune, Hanoi) announced the reorganization of boarding meals for students.

Accordingly, from today, October 21, the school will re-organize meals for boarding students.

The school's announcement stated that while completing legal procedures for the new catering unit to cook meals for boarding activities, so that boarding activities of students are not interrupted, from October 21, Cu Khe Primary School will continue to organize boarding meals prepared by a food supplier. This unit has been assessed by the People's Committee of Binh Minh Commune and meets food hygiene and safety conditions.

A class at Cu Khe Primary School on the morning of October 20 was empty because many parents reacted by letting their children stay home from school.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY PARENTS

Cu Khe Primary School added that currently, the selection of a meal supplier must follow the correct procedure, so from October 21 to 24, the school will sign a temporary contract with a team of trained professional kitchen staff.

Cooking will be done in the school kitchen, under the support and supervision of the People's Committee of Binh Minh Commune, the health station and the parents' representatives of each class. After the bidding process is completed, the winning bidder will officially provide meals for the boarding students.

Cu Khe Primary School also committed to ensuring food hygiene and safety according to regulations.

As Thanh Nien reported on October 20, after nearly a week of discovering smelly quail meat and eggs in the kitchen of Cu Khe Primary School, many parents let their children stay home from school to protest the school's failure to closely manage the boarding kitchen, its failure to fulfill its responsibility for the children's meals, and the school's handling of the situation.

Specifically, early in the morning of October 15, parents' representatives suddenly inspected the school kitchen and discovered "quail eggs and a small amount of meat with an odor", not being refrigerated, and the kitchen utensils and processing procedures did not ensure hygiene and safety...

According to many parents, after the incident, the school announced the suspension of food supply from Nhat Anh and will contract with another unit to serve boarding students from October 20.

However, on October 19, through the homeroom teachers of each class, the school asked for parents' opinions on choosing two options for boarding care: the first option is for parents to bring their own lunch to school for their children. The school will arrange for teachers to take care of the children eating and resting at noon in the classroom.

Option 2, parents pick up their children after morning classes and bring them back to school for afternoon classes.

According to many parents, both options put the difficulty on parents as many of them work far away and cannot pick up their children at noon while cooking rice in the morning and putting it in a take-away box until noon is also inconvenient.

According to a report from Cu Khe Primary School, on the morning of October 20, more than 180 students were absent from the school, some due to health issues. Of the 1,330 students attending school, approximately 500 students brought lunch to eat at school; the rest were picked up by their parents to eat and rest at home.

In response to parents' reactions, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training requested local authorities to direct and find solutions for Cu Khe Primary School to reopen its boarding kitchen, ensuring safety so that parents can feel secure in sending their children to school.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/phu-huynh-cho-con-nghi-hoc-nha-truong-to-chuc-lai-bua-an-ban-tru-185251020232034711.htm