Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, has expressed the need for the ministry of finance to revise its medium-term expenditure allocation to school feeding programme.
According to him, the monies allocated to basic schools for feeding is woefully in adequate and must necessarily be increased. This, he explained, is to ensure an improvement in the quality of food being served students.
Mr Asare revealed that per the medium-term projection in the ministry of finance’s budget presented last year, an amount of GHC969 million is projected for allocation in 2024 but in 2025, it actually declines to about GHC770 million. With this, he stated that the medium-term framework of the IMF programme, has invariably led to some reduction in the budget for the school feeding programme for 2025.
Elaborating on this, Mr Asare indicated that per the projections of the ministry of finance, allocation to the Ghana School Feeding Programme, may reduce by 25% in 2025.
“… By 2025, if you are going to give school feeding programme 25% less than what is currently being allocated to them which is already inadequate, the only meaning is that they are going to reduce the number of beneficiaries by 25% and that is the projection by the minister of finance in the medium term.
“So, we have actually called for a review of the medium-term expenditure framework of the ministry of finance to let the allocation to the school feeding programme and other basic education lines reflect the realities. So, such actions only speak to what has been approved per appropriation in the budget and I think that we need to revise it.”
Kofi Asare
The Eduwatch executive director highlighted that if the allocation for the school feeding programme is not reviewed, the quality of food that government expect the children to enjoy will continue to diminish. He lamented that the situation makes it difficult for CSOs like Eduwatch to monitor the quality of school feeding programme.
“The last time we were monitoring school feeding, I was in Bong MA primary, and I looked at the food being served and I’m quiet because it’s 97 pesewas so what else can you say. So, I think that we need to engage more with government for government to increase the school feeding allocation within the medium-term budget. As it now, the caterers are shouting, but the reality is that the budget hasn’t made any allocation to solve their problem or give them the GHC3 a day…”
Kofi Asare
Caterers demand increment in school feeding programme allocation
Reacting to the calls by caterers of school feeding programme for government to increase the feeding grant from 97 pesewas to GHC3 and payment of arrears, Mr Asare expressed that the concerns raised by the caterers are genuine, expected and long overdue. Justifying his stance, he noted that the issues associated with the school feeding programme has been going on for years and it’s further compounded by inflation and hikes in food prices.
“The reality is that the Ghana cedi has depreciated by over 80% to 100% in the past four year. In the past year alone, it was about 50%. We know the inflation rate; food inflation is the highest and it’s been just around 50%. If you have to do an analysis of the inflation rate between 2018 and now on food, I’ sure it’s going to be way over 100%. But we have a situation where school feeding caterers have been feeding students since 2018 with 97 pesewas per day, per child. So, it tells you the quality of food that can be produced from that amount of money.”
Kofi Asare
Mr Asare stated that compared to the Free Senior High School which is the only other school feeding programme within the country’s pre-tertiary space, that of the basic education is underfunded. He recalled that in 2018, government was paying about GHC4 for free senior high school feeding a day, which has been increased to GHC6.
“So, we’ve seen at least 50% or more in how much we are spending in feeding the senior high school students between 2018 and now. So, why is it a challenge to increase the amount of money basic school students are being fed with? What makes the situation uncertain is that in this year’s budget, the minister of finance announced a 10% increment in the school feeding budget allocation from GHC880 million to GCH969 million. Now, that 10% suggested that an average of 10% increment was going to happen for the school feeding programme…”
Kofi Asare
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