Minister of Education Gani Bissembayev stated that his department and the Ministry of Health are planning to develop a new nutrition standard for educational institutions, which they intend to introduce at the start of the new academic year.
According to Bes.media, the department previously inspected school canteens across the country for compliance with sanitary and epidemiological requirements and identified 771 violations.
"For instance, the akimats of the Zhambyl, Mangystau, Almaty, and Atyrau regions, as well as Shymkent, have not paid due attention to organising quality nutrition in schools. This indicates the need to focus on the quality of nutrition and strengthen oversight by the akimats of these regions," Bissembayev noted.
The Ministry is considering introducing administrative liability for officials who violate the requirements for selecting school meal service providers.
"To improve the quality of school meals, Gani Bissembayev is calling for tighter quality control of school nutrition, strict adherence to legislation when selecting suppliers, daily monitoring by committees and medical staff, updating the cost of meals, modernising canteens, holding businesses accountable, ensuring access to quality products, developing a forward-looking menu, introducing new nutrition standards from 2025, and strengthening unannounced sanitary inspections," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov reported that in Kazakhstan there are 403 schools that lack canteens providing full hot meals.
Bektenov instructed the relevant authorities to develop a new standard by the end of the year, involving experts and scientists.
The Prime Minister also instructed the Ministries of Education and Finance to take measures to automate the register of dishonest suppliers and establish administrative liability for all procurement participants.
"Akimats need to take special control of improving the material and technical base of school canteens. Furthermore, it is necessary to recalculate the cost of meals taking into account the inflation rate and allocate additional funds for this. To ensure transparency in the use of budget funds, it is important to install hardware and software systems by the end of the year and provide for their integration with the 'Social Wallet'," he said.
The Ministry of Health was instructed to strengthen measures for monitoring and sanitary-epidemiological control over the organisation of children's nutrition.
It is noted that today 1.7 million schoolchildren in the country are provided with free hot meals. 162 billion tenge is allocated for this from the local budget.
Recall that on 6 September, in the Beshshoky residential area of the village of Mangystau, Munaily District, Mangystau Region, primary school children were mass poisoned after lunch in the canteen.
Minister of Health Akmaral Alnazarova stated that 462 schoolchildren sought medical help. 96 of them were hospitalised. Following this incident, Minister of Education Gani Beissembayev ordered inspections in all schools across the country.
It also emerged that the school canteen was run by IE "Shakenova D". It was reported that the company's annual revenue is estimated at 2.5 billion tenge. Most contracts with the company were concluded using a single-source method.
On 16 September, specialists from the laboratory of the National Centre of Expertise of the Mangystau Region identified gross sanitary violations in the educational institution's canteen.
Intestinal bacteria were found in 20% of the swab and smear samples taken from the school canteen. Staphylococcus was detected in six canteen employees. Furthermore, a dishwasher and food server turned out to be a carrier of dysentery.
In October, Minister of Education Gani Beissembayev stated that following this incident, the head of the education department of the Mangystau Region resigned, and the deputy akim of the region received a reprimand. Additionally, the school terminated its contract with the company providing the catering services.