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Belarusian Education Minister Andrei Ivanyets believes that school is a temple of knowledge, not a restaurant. He made the statement in an interview with Belarusian television, commenting on a recent meeting held by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, where the issue of school meals and excessive food waste was again raised. According to Ivanyets, a new menu will be introduced after the autumn holidays.
“First of all, I would like to say that school is, after all, a temple of knowledge — it is not a restaurant. In this regard, we proceed from the fact that school meals should meet the standards of quality, children’s dietary requirements, and nutritional value. Therefore, I do not think it is the most revolutionary or correct idea, because we understand that our children’s health is in our hands — including through the quality of the food that schools provide,” he said in response to a question about the idea of introducing a buffet-style system in schools, as proposed in Russia.
Ivanyets referred to Lukashenka, who has demanded a reduction in food waste.
“In this regard, of course, we must take action. There may be two reasons: either the food is not prepared very well and therefore school meals are not in demand, or we are offering dishes that are simply not popular among our students. Therefore, we need to seriously revisit our menu. It should be clear, understandable, and acceptable to children and, as much as possible within sanitary standards, resemble home-style food. We are now saying that right after the autumn holidays, we will test a new two-week menu in Minsk schools to see how well it meets the needs of our students,” he said.
Ivanyets also summarized the results of the full ban on mobile phones in schools, in effect since September 1. He said there had been concerns that students would hand in simple phones for storage while hiding smartphones in their backpacks, but that did not happen. The minister added that there were no problems with handing in or retrieving phones.
“But most importantly, we see that the children have started running around during breaks. That’s probably good and healthy. In some schools, the lower grades have even introduced music breaks to overcome physical inactivity and make breaks more dynamic and interesting. In senior classes, we plan to introduce bookcrossing so that students can bring interesting books from home, share, exchange, and read more. I am confident this will have a very positive impact on both the students’ communication and their physical health. Even when talking to the children, they say they no longer even notice the absence of mobile phones while at school,” Ivanyets said.