PRIMARY school parents’ associations yesterday demanded that they be allowed to run school canteens given what was currently on offer and the prices children were forced to pay.
”It is the only solution that can solve in a definitive way the problem of managing school canteens and the chaotic situation that exists today with the unsuitable products being offered by many school canteens. This can’t go on any longer,” said the head of the Pancyprian Confederation of Parents’ Associations of Primary Schools, Chrysanthos Pieri.
Canteens were selling anything they wanted said Pieri. “What we observe with regret is that instead of heeding our constant requests for the reduction of the approved list and the replacement of some things with 10-15 healthy products for our children, we have the same phenomenon year after year with canteens increasing the number of products,”
He said according to Education Ministry surveys, 57 per cent of canteens were breaking the law by selling unapproved items while parents were struggling to make sure their children were being given the best possible quality food and service.
“Unfortunately school canteens have become mini-markets.
Furthermore, he claimed the canteen owners were profiteering at the expense of their children.
“Especially in primary schools, which educate children of ages six up 12 years old. The state has a duty to stop seeing canteens as a source of income,” said Pieri.
He added: “The management of school canteens should be given to the organised parents, who are evidently the most responsible to decide what is best for their children”.
He suggested that at the end of each current contract with the school supervisory authority, control be passed on to the relevant parents’ association. The ministry, he added, said such a move would be extremely difficult – maybe even impossible – but committed to carrying out a financial study into its feasibility.
Either way, Pieri warned that immediately after the Easter holidays, school canteens caught breaking the law will be faced with the parents’ “dynamic reactions”.
”Now is the time to make it known in practice that the health of our children is not negotiable for anyone’s financial interest,” he said.
The Education Ministry has asked for time to carry out a study into the situation with the canteens.
