Thomas Tanko Musah
Teacher unions have described as precarious the timelines for school food supplies.
Failure to remedy the situation, they have threatened to advise themselves on the next line of action.
In a release signed by Thomas Tanko Musah, General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Eric Carbonu, President, Ghana National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and King Ali, President, CCT-GH, the unions stated that “it is unfortunate, heartbreaking and disturbing that the schools have to look for funds elsewhere to cater for the SHS students until funds are disbursed from the Ministry of Education. We reiterate that any further delay will impact negatively on the smooth running of the free SHS policy.”
Continuing, the unions stressed the “call on the Ministry of Education and all the duty bearers to act swiftly to save the precarious and difficult situation currently confronting the schools by the close of Friday, March 19, 2021”, adding that if by the close of this week they do not receive any favourable response, they shall determine the next line of action.
The situation at the SHSs, they pointed out, has brought the schools on their knees as they attribute the situation to the delays in releasing the government funds, and non-supply of food items by the Buffer Stock Company. The situation, they added, has been compounded by the early reporting at the schools at the beginning of each term compared to the period preceding the free SHS. Now, they went on, students no longer have to wait for school fees to be provided them before reporting to school.
Since the past eight weeks when the SHSs reopened for the 2020/2021 academic year, not only has the supply of food items by the Buffer Stock Company to the schools stopped, the Ministry of Education, they added, has failed to transfer the needed funds for the smooth running of the schools.
The successes chalked in school feeding in the primary schools, the unions stated, led government to extend the programme to SHSs in September 2017. The aim was to increase enrolment and enhance nutritional status of students in SHSs. The policy, the unions explained, includes three square meals for residential students and a hot lunch for non-residential students.
Having been implemented in a progressive fashion, the unions recalled it started with the first year of SHS admitted in the 2017/2018 academic year.
By A.R. Gomda