FILE – Students eating school meals
CAIRO - 16 August 2021: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directed that general health checks be conducted for students before the start of the new academic year to ensure their health and safety, said Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Radi in a statement.
Health check-ups are carried out to detect infection by COVID-19 virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), hypertension, diabetes, obesity, stunting, and vision impairment, among other diseases; accurate databases should be prepared, the President instructed.
In a statement on Sunday, Egyptian Minister of Education Tareq Shawky announced that the new academic year would start on October 9, 2021 at the governmental and private schools, while it would begin on September 12, 2021 at the international schools nationwide.
President Sisi stated during the inauguration ceremony of Menoufeya's Sadat City "Silo Foods" on August 3, 2021 that the government is working on offering standard meals “presented in a nice way” to schoolchildren. The cost of such meals annually is estimated at LE7.7 billion given that the cost of each meal is LE6-7, the president pointed out.
Shedding light on the prevalence rates of anemia, obesity and stunting among children, President Sisi reiterated that people must give care to “the quality not the number” stressing the necessity of family planning.
Additional reporting by Noha El Tawil
Comments
Leave a Comment