The Star

Thursday, 28/04/2011

Ministry to study guidelines for school canteen menus

PUTRAJAYA: The proposed guidelines for school canteen menus will be discussed in detail before their implementation.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said the Education and Health ministries would consider the welfare of all the parties involved.

"We cannot enforce such guidelines overnight because canteen operators need to be given sufficient notice to implement the changes.

"We also have to consider how enforcement of the guidelines is to be carried out. For instance, will checks be carried out by education officers, health ministry officials, or school principals themselves?" he said after meeting students and parents on matriculation issues at the ministry yesterday.

Under the Health Ministry's proposed guidelines set to come into effect next month, canteens may serve nasi lemak only twice a week while burgers, sausages and nuggets would be banned.

Earlier, Dr Wee held a meeting with students who were unhappy about their marks in the matriculation programme.

These students entered the programme last year after those who were originally given places left upon obtaining Public Service Department scholarships.

Their major complaint was that despite their late entry, the final cumulative grade point average (CGPA) included evaluation of those weeks when they had not joined the programme.

Dr Wee said the ministry would look into the matter.

"There are 39 cases. We will go through them one by one. If there are discrepancies in the marks allocation, we will rectify them.

"Students should be evaluated only from the day they started the matriculation programme and not be penalised for late entry," he said.

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