Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, Minister of Education
Reports reaching DAILY GUIDE indicate that the 5th January, 2017 – the date second cycle schools were supposed to reopen in the Northern Region – has been postponed. This is because the feeding grants have not been made available to the authorities of the schools.
Information available to the paper reveals that headmasters of the various second cycles institutions have decided to reschedule the reopening date to next week Thursday, January 12.
According to our source, a cheque which was given to the schools for the feeding grants bounced and so the heads were given the assurance that the next government would see to the payments.
The Chairman of the Northern Regional branch of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of second cycle institutions, Alhaji Abdul Malik Salifu Husseini, who confirmed the rescheduling of the reopening date to DAILY GUIDE, said parents were confident that the incoming government would speed up the process for the students to go back to school.
“The new government has given the assurance and we hope that they would not delay because we don’t want a situation where the children will come to school without food,” he said.
Alhaji Husseini said the PTA was reliably informed that the schools were indebted to food suppliers for three terms.
There are speculations that schools may not be able to re-open for the 2nd term of 2016/2017 if funds are not released for the payment of the outstanding debts.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale