KOTA KINABALU, July 11 — The allocation from the Ministry of Education (MoE) is not sufficient for the school canteen operators to supply nutritious food to students due to the rising food price inflation.

According to the MoE’s website, each primary school student in the Peninsula will be allocated RM2.50 per breakfast meal. On the other hand, each primary school student in Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan will be allocated with RM3 per breakfast meal.

"If we look into the cost allocated per breakfast meal, it would not be sufficient for the school canteen operators to supply nutritious food due to the rising food price inflation,” said Tanjung Aru assemblyman Datuk Junz Wong.

He said 450 grammes of yellow noodles could cost between RM1.40 to RM2.00; 200 grammes of baby siew pak choy sum could cost between RM2.00 to RM2.60.

"If we still need to add several slices of chicken, a fried egg and small boxed milk into their breakfast meal package, it could cost more than RM5 per person, the least,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Junz was responding to the revelation that B40 primary school students in Pahang only received a handful of plainly fried yellow noodles and a tiny piece of vegetable for their breakfast in school.

He said the government’s supplementary food programme (RMT) aims to improve the health, physical condition and nutritional practices of primary school students from rural and low-income groups.

However, what B40 primary school students in Pahang received for breakfast already defeated the actual purpose of the RMT programme, he said.

Junz, who is Warisan vice president, said the issue arising from RMT is not new.

"In early January, a netizen shared a picture of the food served via Facebook that only rice and gravy were included in the breakfast package.

"Therefore, I totally have no clue what BN, PN and GRS governments are doing all this while. Is the government really have no money to allocate more budget for the RMT programme? Or someone has pocketed the money initially allocated for the RMT programme for another usage?

"RMT was introduced with good intention in 1979 to provide daily meals for poor students in schools. But how about the implementation and delivery system of this programme?

"What we see in the social media has proven that there are no Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to keep tracking how the RMT programme goes. Therefore, the RMT programme delivery became third class as well!

"But ironically, the rakyat are the ones who suffer the most in the end. They contributed tax revenue to the government annually but at the end of the day, who is the one who benefits the most?” said Junz.

"I’m sad to see what B40 primary school students received for breakfast. Instead of being busy forming an electoral pact for the soon-to-be-held GE15, can BN, PN and GRS government divert their attention by looking into this issue that will detrimentally impact the nutrition and health of our children?” he added. — Borneo Post