The General Secretary suggested that Hanoi provide free lunch for students.

The problem of encroachment on roads and sidewalks needs to be addressed.

On the morning of April 17, General Secretary To Lam and National Assembly delegates from constituency No. 1 of Hanoi (Ba Dinh, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung districts) met with voters ahead of the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly.

General Secretary To Lam suggested that Hanoi city leaders provide free school lunches for over 1 million students.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

At the conference, after discussing some general national issues with the voters, General Secretary To Lam raised two major issues and requested Hanoi City to pay attention to addressing them.

The first issue, according to the General Secretary, is ensuring food safety because the capital cannot afford to lose its food safety. A loss of food safety would affect the capital's reputation, the health of its citizens, and the quality of the city's urban environment.

According to General Secretary To Lam, voters are very concerned about this issue, especially in Hanoi where there are areas with street vendors, street food stalls, temporary markets, and makeshift markets selling food of unknown origin, past its expiration date, counterfeit goods, and imitation products. This includes essential items such as powdered milk for children, affecting people's health and causing public outrage.

Therefore, the city needs a dedicated plan to address this issue of encroachment on roads and sidewalks for commercial purposes. This not only affects urban aesthetics and order but also poses a potential risk to food safety and hygiene, hindering inspection and control efforts by relevant authorities.

We need to reduce the academic pressure on students.

Secondly, according to the General Secretary, Hanoi needs to focus on education and school policies. This includes continuing to pay close attention to ensuring the quality of teaching and learning, and fostering the holistic development of children in the capital city.

The General Secretary analyzed that recently, the Ministry of Education and Training has issued guidelines on organizing two-session-per-day schooling for primary and lower secondary school students. Therefore, the spirit is to avoid increasing academic pressure on students, not increase tuition fees, and not increase the need for extra tutoring or supplementary classes.

In particular, the General Secretary also suggested that Hanoi should have a policy to provide free lunch at school for students to reduce the burden on parents who have to drop off and pick up their children at lunchtime.

According to the General Secretary, Hanoi currently has about 1.2 - 1.3 million primary and secondary school students. If each free meal costs around 30,000 VND, Hanoi would have to spend about 100 billion VND per month. That amounts to approximately 900 billion VND per school year.

"If Hanoi collects approximately 250,000 billion VND in budget revenue by the first quarter of 2025, it will be more than capable," the General Secretary said, suggesting that Hanoi conduct further research.

The General Secretary also suggested reducing academic pressure on students, allowing them time for recreation and learning other subjects. For example, they could study academics in the morning and English or some other talent-based subject in the afternoon.

"The other day I suggested to the Ministry of Education and Training that every child, upon graduating from high school, should know how to play a musical instrument. This is highly encouraged. Some children can play the flute, others the piano, depending on their talent... Children living in peace should be able to enjoy such opportunities," the General Secretary said.