Govt to establish new balanced diet guideline for school students

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will establish a new healthy and balanced diet guideline based on the Health Ministry's advice to curb malnutrition among school students.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zahid Hamidi said about 5.6 million Malaysians comprising pre-school children, primary and secondary school students were experiencing malnutrition in the country.

"We need to bear in mind that our children can experience malnutrition issues as early as when they start pre-school.

"Hence, several measures have been taken by the National Social Council (NSC) to coordinate a balanced food intake based on the advice given by MoH.

"In order to produce a well-grown Malaysian generation, we will also follow the standard determined by the World Health Organisation," he said during a press conference after the NSC meeting in Parliament, today.

He added that RM800 million would also be allocated to provide a balanced food intake in primary and secondary schools, alone.

"The malnutrition issue among our children, if not curbed, can lead to nutritional deficiencies for our next generation."

At the same time, the NSC meeting chaired by Zahid, also touched on the coordination of pre-school and kindergarten nationwide.

The coordination, he said, would ensure every pre-school and kindergarten followed the government standard system and requirements.

"This is also to ensure that the government keeps track of the total amount of private kindergarten that follows the requirements set by the government."

He added that up to 2022, Malaysia had a total of 4,142 kindergartens, where 1,081 were unregistered.

Meanwhile, the total number of children in private kindergarten amounted to 4,5718, he said.

He added that a Cabinet Memorandum would be presented soon to coordinate initiatives in curbing issues related as it involved cross-ministerial cooperation.