THE New Sunday Times has again highlighted a concern that remains unresolved.

Despite school canteen guidelines and the banning of junk food in schools, cases of food poisoning in schools and National Service camps, along with the rising rate of obesity among children, remain serious and contentious problems.

In 2005, the National Heart Institute conducted a study on healthy eating among school-children and it was found that the food served at school canteens surveyed was unhealthy.

Similar stories were also reported in the media.

Then, there was an announcement by the government that it would post nutritionists in boarding schools.

The status of the implementation is yet to be made known, but should the outcome be positive, the programme should then be extended to cover national schools.

While the shortage of nutrition professionals could pose a barrier, it could be done in a periodic manner with nutritionists visiting schools once or twice a month to educate teachers, canteen operators, parents and students on the importance of nutrition.

Enforcement must be beefed up with commitment from all the authorities involved.

The awarding of tenders to canteen operators should be made more transparent and the school canteen committees must be more stringent in monitoring canteen operators regularly.

In fact, the school management itself could be made more accountable through the inclusion of canteen ratings or evaluation in their annual assessment.

Accountability and coordination by the education department, local authorities and the school management are pivotal to weeding out errant practices by canteen operators and reports of teachers allegedly selling junk food to students.

It is obvious that the self-regulatory approach (Program Kendiri) has shown little progress, with researchers reporting canteen operators openly breaking the law.

Therefore, the School Canteen Management Guidelines 2004 should be made mandatory and enforceable by law.

The idea of enforcing a buffer zone outside the school compound to restrict the sale of junk food by mobile vendors should be implemented immediately.

Schoolchildren must be taught to make healthy food choices and to prevent them being lured by junk food promotions.

Parents, through parent-teacher associations, can promote healthy eating by raising the issue with school authorities. They can also survey their children’s school canteen to observe the kind of food being sold and report any violation of law.

Poor nutrition is linked to children’s health and academic performance.

It is, therefore, vital to ensure that during a child’s development stages, good nutrition is provided for optimum growth, together with sound nutrition knowledge for them to live a healthy lifestyle.

CHEAH CHEE HO for Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations

Source: NST – June 26, 2008