what's the issue with food in school canteens?

was reading yesterday's (or was it day before) st and was catching up on bur-ha-ha with regards to the issue of having a fully halal school canteen.

apparently, a primary school had changed all her canteen stalls to serve halal food. that was in 2004 under the pervious principal. then recently, the new principal issued a parents' letter to ban any non-halal food to be brought to school, and that the teachers will check if the food is halal. that is when parents complained about it being discriminatory. muslim leaders and moe issued statements stating that it is not aiding racial integration in school, and that there is nothing wrong with a muslim eating halal food sharing a table with non-muslims eating non-halal food. moe has also decided on a policy that all schools must serve both halal and non-halal food.

i once toyed with the feasibility of having a full halal canteen.  it was not due to what racial integration thing-y or what so ever, but it stemmed from my limited perspective when i was a student, as well as a relief teacher. 

in these schools, there is usually 2 or 3 stalls out of 10-12 stalls serving halal food. usually, it will be one selling malay noodle dishes, another selling malay rice dishes, and another, might be a indian stall. 

indirectly, and unintentionally, this has caused problems for the muslim students. 

1) longer waiting time

excluding drink stalls, non-muslim students can choose to queue up at 8-10 stalls. but muslim students have to queue up at 2-3 stalls. technically, if non-muslim students keep to the 6-8 non-halal stalls, and assuming the proportion of the ethnic groups is similar to singapore's general population, statistically, that wouldn't be an issue. unfortunately, it is not uncommon to see just as much non-muslim students queueing up at halal stalls and non-halal stalls. what does this mean for our muslim students? a much longer queue, and they don't have much of a choice.

2) unable to exercise their rights as a customer

customers have certain rights. if the food from a stall is not good, they just don't queue for it. portions too small or price to expensive? go to another stall. it is not uncommon to see hardly any queues at unpopular stalls in schools.

but our muslim students don't have a choice! and with problem 1 around, it makes it harder for them to not patronise one of the halal stalls.

true the school administration can take action, but stall holders are after all, the one holding more power over it. take it from what happened during my jc days. for $1.50, the portion of the nasi goreng is 1/3 the portion of the fried rice from the chinese stall. it took a few weeks for the complaints from students to amass and seem like a big enough problems for the administration to take action. well, the stall holder gave in, but not much change was made. the portion increased to about 1/2 the portion of the fried rice from the chinese stall, which is not enough for teenagers. 

aren't they being discriminated indirectly then?

3) lack of choices

this might seem very trivial but let's put it this way. if most secondary students get sick of 10 stalls of canteen food, isn't it worse for our muslim students who has only 2-3 stalls to go to?

besides, most of the time, the food in halal stalls tend to be on the heavy and spicy side. there are also times when our muslim friends need something light also.

so why is it a must for a school to have both halal and non-halal stalls?

how does it promote racial integration?

how does it allow our students to be more aware and sensitive to other cultures when

1) we are giving the impression that halal food = malay /indian food. it is not difficult to see why. school canteen tends to be like this, so is public eateries other than fast food restaurants. that was the impression most of my friends and i have of halal food, until banquet came out.

2) limiting the choices of our muslim students when they can't try food from other cultures

i'm not looking at the utopian vision of students eating food from each other's plate. but seriously, i don't see how enforcing every school to have halal and non-halal food stalls promotes racial integration and teaches our kids to be more sensitive to other culture. If the number of halal stalls is not enough,  we would be creating problems for our muslim students indirectly. 

besides, what is the issue here? the parents are complaining that they are not allowed to bring non-halal food, not that the canteen is serving only halal food. how does enforcing such a rule solve the problem? you could simply have a rule that school administration are not allowed to set any rules with regards to food bring brought to school?

and if ever any parents complain that making a canteen serving only halal food is discrimination, i wonder how is that so? chinese, indian, western food can still be prepared and be halal. it is not that other races are not allowed to eat food prepared in their manner.

besides, what is wrong with excluding pork in our school canteens? it is not like the chinese MUST have pork in their diet. neither is it an issue eating other meat that is slaughtered in a halal manner, nor is it forbidden for other races to use utensils that has never touched pork before. it doesn't require a change in practices for the students' family, which will be the case if they are not allowed to bring non-halal food to school. so where's the discrimination? 

if they still scream discrimination, despite all these claims being debunked, is it because they are stigmatised by halal food? if so, where did the stigmatisation come from? is it due to a lack of exposure to what is considered halal? if so, does enforcing a halal/non-halal mix strengthens such stigmatisation then?