Following the restructuring of the school network, Mường Nhé Semi-Boarding Primary School for Ethnic Minority Students now has one main campus and four satellite campuses, with a total of 123 classes and more than 3,290 students. This is the first year the school has reorganized its scale under the new model, with more than 1,590 students now accommodated under the semi-boarding program. This places considerable pressure on the organization of boarding services, particularly food safety, given the large number of students and the dispersed locations of the satellite campuses.

Alongside stabilizing the school’s organization, assigning responsibilities and ensuring adequate facilities for teaching and learning, the school has focused on preparing all necessary conditions for semi-boarding students, especially ensuring food safety and hygiene in their daily meals.

Đồng Thị Thúy, Principal of Mường Nhé Semi-Boarding Primary School for Ethnic Minority Students, said that because most students eat and stay at school during the school week, ensuring safe meals is particularly important. The school must maintain strict procedures at every stage, from receiving and storing food to preparation, cooking and serving meals to students. Hygiene in the kitchen, cooking utensils and dining areas must also be maintained on a regular basis.

Following the restructuring, Mường Nhé Semi-Boarding Lower Secondary School for Ethnic Minority Students has 63 classes and 2,402 students, including 1,702 semi-boarders. The large number of boarding students, spread across several satellite campuses, makes ensuring food safety particularly challenging. A lapse at any stage of the process could affect students’ health. Therefore, alongside stabilizing teaching and learning activities, the school’s management has identified the organization of boarding services, particularly food safety, as a priority to be implemented systematically from the first days of the school year.

Dương Tiến Công, Principal of Mường Nhé Semi-Boarding Lower Secondary School for Ethnic Minority Students, said that after the merger, the number of semi-boarding students increased and the school’s management area became larger. The school therefore held meetings with its management board, the satellite campuses and the main campus to agree on arrangements for providing meals to semi-boarding students.

The school has agreed to select reputable food suppliers that can guarantee the quality of the food provided. To ensure the quality of meals, the school has also asked its accounting and school health units to work together to balance meal portions, ensuring that students at the main campus and satellite campuses receive broadly equivalent portions that meet age-appropriate nutritional needs.

Particular attention is also being given to educating and reminding kitchen staff about food safety and hygiene, school nutrition, fire prevention and firefighting, and kitchen management skills. These measures are intended to strengthen the sense of responsibility among those directly involved in preparing meals for students.

In the 2026-2027 school year, Mường Nhé commune has three schools: Mường Nhé Kindergarten, Mường Nhé Semi-Boarding Primary School for Ethnic Minority Students and Mường Nhé Semi-Boarding Lower Secondary School for Ethnic Minority Students. The largest numbers of semi-boarding students are at the primary and lower secondary levels.

From the perspective of local administration, the Mường Nhé commune People’s Committee has identified student health as closely linked to the quality of boarding arrangements at schools. Food safety and hygiene is a key area requiring regular attention, particularly after the restructuring, which has resulted in larger schools and multiple educational facilities operating under the new model.

Nguyễn Văn Úy, Chairman of the Mường Nhé commune People’s Committee, emphasized that the local authority consistently prioritizes food safety and hygiene in meals provided to students. Particularly following the restructuring of educational institutions in the area, schools are required to strictly comply with food safety regulations, proactively control food sources and strengthen responsibility at every stage of meal preparation and service.

Taking preventive action from the beginning of the school year is particularly important because, as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. When food sources are properly controlled, kitchen operations are well organized and meal portions are appropriately calculated, the quality and safety of semi-boarding meals can be better ensured.

To ensure that every meal served to students is safe and nutritious, educational institutions across Mường Nhé commune are tightening food safety and hygiene measures from the very beginning of the school year. From selecting quality food suppliers and controlling the receipt and storage of food to its preparation and cooking, schools are gradually strengthening responsibility for the organization of semi-boarding meals to protect students’ health and provide a secure foundation for them to study and develop.

These efforts are also helping build a safer educational environment and strengthen parents’ confidence when entrusting their children to school.