Ghana Education Service has transferred perishable items funding for Senior High and Senior High Technical Schools, covering the period from March to September 2026, directly to individual school accounts nationwide.
The disbursement, communicated in a notice and addressed to all Regional Directors of Education, signals that Management has moved to settle a portion of the boarding cost burden schools have carried for second and third-year students ahead of the new academic term.
According to the notice issued from the Service’s Accra headquarters, funds covering perishable items from 1st March, 2026 to 4th September, 2026 for SHS 2 and 3 students have already reached the various accounts of Senior High and Senior High Technical Schools across the country.
The correspondence instructs Regional Directors to pass the notice on to Heads of the affected institutions, ensuring that school administrators are promptly aware that the funds are available for use.
“Management of Ghana Education Service wishes to inform all Regional Directors to notify Heads of Senior High and Senior High Technical Schools that, perishables for schools from 1st March, 2026 to 4th September, 2026, for SHS 2 and 3 students, have been transferred to the various accounts of the Senior High and Senior High Technical Schools.”
Ghana Education Service
The wording of the circular makes clear that the release is specific to second and third-year students, leaving open the question of when a similar allocation will be made for first-year students, who are typically funded separately as new admissions each academic year.
Heads Told to Account for Funds Through Regional Accountants
Beyond confirming the transfer, the letter places a clear obligation on school heads to demonstrate accountability for the money received. Head teachers have been directed to forward official receipts of the disbursed funds to the Director-General through their respective Regional Accountants, a routine but important compliance step designed to track how the money is eventually spent on feeding and boarding supplies.
“Heads of Senior High and Senior High Technical Schools are reminded to send official receipts of the funds received to the Director General, GES, through their Regional Accountants.”
Ghana Education Service
This accountability requirement is consistent with the Service’s established financial reporting structure, in which Regional Accountants serve as an intermediary layer verifying disbursements before receipts are consolidated and forwarded to headquarters. Education stakeholders have long pushed for tighter tracking of such releases, following past complaints from parents and school administrators about delays or shortfalls in funding meant to support boarding students’ meals and basic provisions.
A Recurring Financial Pressure Point for Boarding Schools
Perishable item allocations remain one of the more sensitive financial issues facing Ghana’s senior high schools, particularly since the rollout of the Free Senior High School programme placed government squarely in charge of covering feeding costs for boarding students nationwide.
Delays in releasing such funds have, in previous terms, forced some school administrations to run up debts with local suppliers or ration food supplies while awaiting government disbursement.
By confirming that the funds for the March to September period have already been credited to school accounts, the Service appears to be signalling improved timeliness in its financial support to second-cycle institutions, even as the letter itself offers no figures on the total amount released or a sector-by-sector breakdown of allocations.
The directive is signed by Munawaru Issahaque, a PhD holder serving as Deputy Director-General in charge of Quality and Access, acting for the Director-General. His signature places the disbursement squarely within the docket of the Q&A directorate, which oversees standards, access and quality assurance issues across the Service, rather than the finance directorate typically associated with routine budgetary releases.
Management is counting on your usual cooperation.
That closing line, a standard feature of GES administrative communication, nonetheless underscores an expectation that Regional Directors and school heads will act swiftly both to acknowledge the funds and to comply with the receipt-submission requirement that follows.
Circular Confirms Transfer to School Accounts
Attention will now turn to individual Regional Education Offices and school administrations to confirm receipt of the funds and begin utilising them for their intended purpose of supporting the feeding and welfare needs of SHS 2 and 3 boarding students through to September.
Parents and guardians, many of whom have raised concerns in past terms about feeding conditions in boarding schools, are likely to look to their children’s own experiences on campus as the practical test of whether the released funds translate into improved provisions.
Whether the Service follows up with a similar release for SHS 1 students, and how promptly Regional Accountants process the required receipts, will offer the clearest indication of how smoothly this latest round of perishables funding is implemented across the country’s senior high and senior high technical schools.
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