KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry has shot down claims that children under the government's Supplementary Food Programme (RMT) were served with only plain rice and gravy, as alleged by a Facebook user.
Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin, who instructed the ministry to investigate the claims earlier today, said ministry representatives had visited the school in question to check on the issue.
"Representatives from the ministry went directly to the school involved and conducted detailed investigations on the allegations made by the Facebook user.
"The investigations found that the food in the picture that went viral was not prepared for RMT recipients in the school," he said, via a Facebook post today.
He said RMT meals were prepared by canteen operators for children to only eat in schools.
Nevertheless, Radzi thanked all parties for voicing their concerns on the matter.
The ministry, he said, will continue to improve the RMT programme, in terms of preparing meals and milk for all the recipients.
He said that since 2021, the ministry has ensured that RMT recipients are served with milk on all school days instead of only twice a week.
A Facebook user, in a posting last night, had uploaded a picture of a packet of plain rice topped with only gravy and claimed that the food was served to her relative's child in school under the RMT programme.
She also questioned if canteen operators were forced to serve low-quality food for students due to inadequate allocation under the RMT programme.
The incident also prompted former Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik to reiterate his calls for the government to increase the RMT rates for schools so canteen operators can serve quality food to students.
The Simpang Renggam member of parliament, during a debate in Dewan Rakyat last month, urged the government to increase the RMT rates for schools from RM2.50 per student to RM4.
This move, he said, was crucial to ensure that canteen operators could continue serving proper meals amid the rising prices of goods.
