Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 20 September, at a regular meeting of the Kengash of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the tasks facing the working group to study problems in the catering system in state preschool educational organizations were considered.

Senators, heads of relevant ministries and departments, state and non-state organizations, as well as media representatives took part in the meeting, which was chaired by the Chairman of the Senate Tanzila Narbayeva.

It was noted that in 2017, on the initiative of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the Ministry of Preschool Education was established. Today you can see the result of a lot of work done in recent years.

In particular, if in 2017 there were 5,211 preschool educational organizations operating in the republic, today their number is 28,012. The coverage of children in these organizations has risen from 708 thousand to almost 2 million (69.4%).

As of 1 January 2022, there are 6300 state preschool educational organizations operating in our country, which cover 1 million 276 thousand children. In 1185 state preschool educational organizations, meals are organized by outsourcing, and 5145 organizations have their own canteens.

The Chairman of the Senate Tanzila Narbayeva, along with the achievements in the system, listed a number of shortcomings. In particular, the organization of nutrition for children by outsourcing has a number of significant drawbacks. For example, mechanisms for their control have not been fully developed. Also, the high level of the human factor in the food system is the cause of the development of corruption.

“Khokimiyats deliberately reduce food prices. As a result, this leads to a decrease in the quality of the supplied products or a decrease in its volume. Specialists of district departments of preschool education, directors of state preschools and other employees do not know their job duties and rights related to food,” said Tanzila Narbayeva.

In turn, the information of the heads of responsible ministries and departments was heard on these issues.

Based on the problems identified at the meeting, the need to prepare analytical material was emphasized and instructions were given to the relevant ministries and departments regarding the information that should be reflected in it.

Thus, the ministries of preschool education, health and finance were instructed to develop unified seasonal menus for state preschool educational organizations in order to ensure the nutrition of children in accordance with the season, their healthy and harmonious growth, and also to calculate the annual amount of funds spent per child on this menu.

In addition, it was noted that the Senate Committee on Science, Education and Health should organize and hold a meeting of the working group and, together with the Ministry of Preschool Education, submit generalized analytical information to the Senate of the Oliy Majlis within 10 days in agreement with the Cabinet of Ministers.