Obec to tackle school lunches using five-point strategy
The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) has come up with a five-point strategy to ensure that school lunch nationwide is of good quality and has created a working team to analyse the budget allocated to meals in school, Obec secretary-general Suthep Chitayawong said on Tuesday.
Obec’s Bureau of Student Activities Development, which has been tasked with studying and drawing up an overall picture of lunch served in primary schools, has found that the budget allocated is insufficient and there is a shortage of nutrition personnel, Suthep said.
This is why, he said, Obec has set a five-point strategy under which schools are required to effectively manage the school-lunch project, follow Obec’s guidelines, provide meals that adhere to food-safety standards, as well as consider building organic farms and coordinating with local communities to produce organic products.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan has instructed Obec to look into the Bt20-per-head rate, which has remained unchanged for the past five years, Suthep said.
Separately, after attending a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Nataphol suddenly showed up at the Mathayom Wat Makutkasat School in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon district to meet and talk to students and join them for lunch. He wanted to learn first-hand about what students want and what can be improved about the school-lunch project. The minister also checked on the canteen, sat in on classes and visited the library and staff room.