Praneeta Prakash 
[ FilePhoto ]
A comprehensive review will be carried out on food rationing system in boarding schools following concerns on nutritional value of meals served to students.
Standing Committee on Public Accounts member Sakiusa Tubuna while sharing his own experiences pointed out the contrast in the nutritional standards of school meals.
He said there has been a significant decline in the variety and quality of food offered to students.
“I attended a boarding school 40 years ago. When you compare the nutrition in those days as compared to now, it is significantly deteriorated to an extent. It’s just unbelievable,” Tubuna said.
The Education Ministry’s Deputy Secretary Corporate Services Edwin Kumar said the proposed review would focus on developing a structured formula for determining appropriate food rations that met students’ nutritional needs.
“There were issues like over-consumption of food in certain instances. There were issues like rations being missing,” he said.
“So the entire idea of this comprehensive consultation is to also do a comprehensive assessment to ensure that we have internal control set up while we are also revising rates for boarders.”
Kumar said the time to fully implement this process will depend on the availability of funding to support the consultation phase.
He said they would propose this in their 2025-2026 budget submission.
