Khanh Hoa Department of Education & Training in association with relevant institutions has prepared to pilot the School Milk Program...
Khanh Hoa Department of Education & Training in association with relevant institutions has prepared to pilot the School Milk Program in the 2 mountainous districts of Khanh Son and Khanh Vinh.
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| A class at 1-6 Nursery School, To Hap Town, Khanh Son District. |
According to the Department of Education, there are 26 kindergartens in the two districts with 723/4.098 playgroup children, including 350 ethnic minority kids, and 3.911/4.291 preschool children, including 3,213 ethnic minority kids, account for 91.1%, mobilized to get schooling. All the children benefit from day boarding at school with a daily meal, regular medical check-ups and health monitoring using growth charts. However, the child malnutrition rate in the two districts still remains high, 30 -35% of the children. The figure is even higher, 50 - 60%, at some nursery schools such as Son Ca (To Hap Town, Khanh Son District); Anh Dao (Son Thai Commune, Khanh Vinh District); and Son Ca (Khanh Phu Commune, Khanh Vinh District).
Besides getting enough sleep and food, children should drink more milk at school to improve their physical and mental health. The School Milk Program, period 2016 – 2020, is under Khanh Hoa residents’ strength and nutrition improvement scheme presided over by Khanh Hoa Department of Health, according to Le Tuan Tu, Director of Khanh Hoa Department of Education & Training.
“The life of children in remote areas in general and in the two districts in particular is still hard. Drinking milk regularly will help improve their health. The school milk program is really meaningful and essential,” says Mau Van Phi, Vice-Chairman of Khanh Vinh District People’s Committee.
Under the program, children aged between 1 and 6 in the two districts will benefit from drinking milk for 9 months of school (40 weeks in total, excluding 3 summer vacation months). Specifically, preschool children will drink milk three times a week and playgroup ones 5 times a week. The milk will be funded by the provincial budget (50%), a milk company (20%) and parents (30%). The service is free for children from ethnic minority and policy beneficiaries’ families.
Khanh Hoa Department of Education & Training will hold bidding to choose a qualified milk supplier for nursery schools in the two districts. The milk supplier must meet such criteria as producing pasteurized sweetened milk, 180ml and 110ml boxes, with the a shelf-life of 6 months; meeting Vietnam brand standard licensed by the Ministry of Heath; ensuring adequate nutrition for nursery aged children; meeting technical requirements for pasteurized milk for schools; directly producing ISO 9002 standard milk, etc.
Khanh Hoa Department of Education & Training in association with Khanh Hoa Department of Heath and local agencies and departments has hastened the preparations for the school milk program. Based on the pilot operation, the program is expected to expand across Khanh Hoa Province in the following years.
The program aims to concretize Vietnamese people’s nutrition and stature development strategy. The Prime Minister issued a decision No. 1340 on July 8 to approve the program to improve nutrition for nursery and primary children till 2020. The targets include 70% of nursery and primary children in urban and rural areas benefiting from the program and the average height of children aged 6 up by 1.5 - 2cm compared with that in the year 2010.
H.Ngan
Translated by N.T
