‘What can you eat for RM2.50?’

KUALA LUMPUR : Stakeholders of the Food Supplementary Programme (FSP) are calling on the government to increase the allocation for the programme to reflect the high cost of living and rising prices of food.

They said the current costing of RM2.50 or RM3 per day per child was not sufficient and would affect the quality of food served to the over 600,000 children in the programme.

The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Wang Heng Suan said the government should increase the allocation by at least RM1.

“What can you eat with RM2.50, especially in urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur,” he told the New Straits Times when asked whether the rate should be increased.

Wang said the government could have resolved this issue if it had managed to reduce the cost of living. However, he said it was now too late as prices were out of control.

He said ideally, the government should allocate RM4 or RM4.50 or more, but could start with a RM1 ringgit increase.

This hike in spending was proposed by Simpang Renggam member of parliament Maszlee Malik when debating the 2022 Budget last year. The former education minister, however, said more should be spent now.

On posts circulating on social media claiming that some students were served plain noodles under the programme, Wang said the incident might be isolated.

“The FSP programme has standard operating procedures on the kind of food prepared for students. Let’s say the government spends RM2 for each student’s meal, which includes mee goreng and a fried egg. This is stated in black and white.

“However, in this case there may have been a shortage of noodles in that area on that day.”

Wang also said students could ask for more if the portion was insufficient.

However, it is understood that if there were issues regarding portions, quality, safety and hygiene, teachers and parents needed to inform the principal so that the operator could be warned, suspended or have the tender revoked.

Former education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the Education Ministry should determine how much should be spent on the FSP via dialogues with canteen operators, parents, teachers and principals.

“They have to thrash it out, weigh all angles and look into solutions so that the goals of the FSP are realised. Not just nutrition, even the taste has to be discussed,” he said, when commenting on claims that the meals were bland.

He said a dialogue would allow operators to state how much could be done with an allocation.

Alimuddin said operators and parents could also raise financial and logistics constraints, especially in rural areas where students have to travel up to two hours to get to school.

“This is because the situation is unique in every school. We cannot tar them all with the same brush,” he said, adding that some rural operators in Sabah and Sarawak were allowed to substitute items, such as noodles.

On suggestions that the parent-teacher associations (PTA) seek corporate aid to supplement the FSP allocation and provide packed lunches for students without the involvement of canteen operators, Alimuddin said that approach would be “complex”.

“PTAs that are outspoken and proactive are usually in urban areas. However the FSP is concentrated in rural or underdeveloped areas, such as islands,” he said.

Parent Action Group for Education president Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim had raised a similar concern with the NST, that parents from less priviliged backgrounds might not speak up for fear that their children’s free meals might be axed.

Alimuddin said food handlers must be trained to ensure safety, cleanliness and nutrition as per the Health Ministry’s standards.

He also called on teachers to document the meals.

“They have to be on the ball and log the food and give a brief summary on quantities, portions, taste, nutrition and so on. This can be used as evidence in case the canteen operator shortchanges the school and students in terms of the number of meal packages received and so on.

“This is their job. It is the teachers’ and principals’ job to state what is happening to ensure this programme runs smoothly.

“It would be a shame to see children go hungry and the programme fail because records were not kept and we missed data crucial to gauge the efficacy of the FSP,” he said, while dismissing grouses from teachers that the programme added to their already heavy workload.

Last month, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said more children were experiencing stunted growth, from 17 per cent in 2015 to 21.8 per cent in 2019.

He said the trend of nutritional deficiency among children, especially those from low-income families, was expected to increase due to the protracted Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact on the people.

NST