KHON KAEN: A chorus of complaints about the quality of lunches served at Anuban Khon Kaen school have led to the temporary removal of the school director to facilitate an investigation into the allegations of substandard meals for students.
Phumphat Rueanglae, the chief of the Primary Educational Service Area 1, on Sunday signed an order for the immediate transfer of school director Apichart Nalao to office work following parents' complaints about the quality of lunches served at the school.
The Primary Educational Service Area office has also set up a panel to look into the accusations, and Mr Phumphat gave the investigators a week to wrap up the probe.
The school director faces another probe by Khon Kean governor Somsak Jungtrakul, who formed a separate fact-finding committee to investigate the matter.
Anuban Khon Kaen School in Muang district, with some 3,700 students, has been in the spotlight since a group of parents registered complaints at the Damrongthan Complaint Centre in the province on Friday over the meagre lunches served to the students. Some of the school's meals that angered the parents included small pieces of crispy chicken and almost-rotten bananas.
The school director on Sunday met with the parents and apologised to them. He promised the quality of the meals would improve and provide better nutrition to the children.
The meals were provided by a caterer that had submitted a winning bid and passed three tests on price, quality and nutrition, he added.
"Teachers at the school will more carefully monitor the food supplied by the caterer," Mr Apichart said, without naming the company.
Anuban Khon Kaen School is the third school to be grilled about the quality of student lunches, following previous complaints about Ban Tha Mai School in Tha Chana district in Surat Thani and Thessaban Taphan Hin School in Taphan Hin district of Phichit. The directors of the two schools were later transferred.
The government provides free lunches for primary school students with a daily budget of 20 baht per head. The food budget is passed to schools through local administration organisations supervised by the Interior Ministry, in cooperation with the Education Ministry.
Danupol Chumchonsamphan, the father of a Prathom 1 pupil at Anuban Khon Kaen School who helped coordinate the complaints with other parents, said after meeting with the school director that the parents held no personal grudges against the teachers at the school.
The parents simply wanted the caterer to take responsibility for providing better meals for their children, he added.
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