The Northern Regional branch of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), after an emergency meeting on August 15, 2022, has indicated that schools in the region will be closed down should government fail to pay arrears owed the schools concerning perishables for the first semester of the 2021/2022 academic year.
A letter signed by the Chairman of the Northern Regional branch of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Reverend Edward Azeka, sighted by DGN Online stated that Heads of Schools in the Region would be compelled to send the SHS 2 students who are in their second semester home.
According to CHASS, no money has been paid for the eleven weeks of the second semester so far which makes going to the market very difficult.
The letter further stated that suppliers who give schools credit for perishable items like eggs and meat are not ready to continue with the supply owing to the amounts of indebtedness.
“On the foregoing, we wish to state that if we do not get immediate releases the SHS 1 students of the single truck schools who would be due to return to school tomorrow Tuesday, August 16, 2022, would not report until we get money. This also includes those in transitional schools who are also billed to report on September 4, 2022.”
The CHASS Chairman entreated the government to pay the recurrent expenditure of the schools, which has been in arrears since last year.
“The non-payment of this component of our money is affecting the smooth running of our schools in issues such as maintenance and repairs, field trips, practical lessons in our laboratories.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale