The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), has urged government to pay outstanding arrears to the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited to remedy food shortages in schools.

According to the coalition, the shortage of food in Senior High Schools is a widespread situation and requires an urgent action by duty bearers. It revealed that government must respond swiftly to address the looming problem of food shortage in schools.

“GNECC believes that the non-payment of arrears to the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited to send food to Senior High Schools, is to be blamed for the current situation. To overcome these difficulties, GNECC urges the government to pay the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited to enable remedy the dire food shortages in the schools.”
GNECC

Contained in a press statement signed by the national chairman of the coalition, Joseph Atsu Homadzi, it recounted that in a letter from the Upper West Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to the Upper West Regional Director of Education, that “if sufficient money and food are not received in the schools by Friday, July 15, 2022”, they will be forced to demand parents and guardians to either feed their wards or come for them since it will be impossible to continue feeding them with nothing.

GNECC stated that the rapid investigation carried out by its regional executives in seven (7) regions which include, Ashanti, Central, Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Bono and Volta confirmed and indicated a similar situation.

“For example, parents are being asked to provide financial support to their children to manage themselves due to the reported food shortage in some of the schools. The shortage of food has led to students resorting to some form of barter trading.”
GNECC

The Coalition highlighted that some students who spoke on the condition of anonymity opined that they have only one meal a day. In some schools, it revealed that “dried fish are changed into powdered fish and small quantities” are used to prepare stew and soup for the students.

“This situation is making it difficult for them to concentrate and learn.”
GNECC

Ministry of Education pledges to address the issue

Meanwhile GNECC has expressed that it is encouraged by the Minister for Education’s guarantee on July 12, 2022, that food will be provided to the impacted schools to address the problem. That notwithstanding, it urged the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited to take measures to prevent the situation, which appears to be re-occurence.

“Besides, we are concerned about the seemingly firefighting approach to dealing with issues concerning the Free Senior High School, which undermine the implementation of the policy.”
GNECC

The Coalition expressed optimism that the Minister of Education would ensure that in the interest of the “poorest of the poor, for whose sake the policy was introduced”, the declaration to provide money and food to the schools will be fulfilled so that the children, particularly those in the final year, can prepare for the forthcoming examinations without a looming threat of disruption.

Per the investigation conducted by GNECC, it further revealed that release of feeding grants to the special schools have not been regular. With this, it requested the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service to ensure timely release of feeding grant for effective running of the Special Schools.

“Finally, we believe with proper planning, situations like these should not repeat itself because of the negative impact it has on teaching and learning.”
GNECC