Executive Director of Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), Dr Peter Anti, has called on government to reconsider its operational plan in its supply of food to senior high schools across the country.

According to him, Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools’ (CHASS) request for government to release funds amid imminent shortage of food supply is a looming problem. He revealed that the problem of shortages in schools could have been avoided because it was apparent “over a year ago” and it was just a matter of the ministry of education “admitting and taking steps” to prevent the escalation of the problem.

Dr Anti indicated that the ministry reckoned that notices of shortages in schools were from persons against the policy and were trying to “cook up issues” to make the policy unpopular, which was far from the reality.

“So, we need to look at the whole operation plan of supplying foods to the schools and that would have led us in realizing that we have a challenge and we would have taken steps to address it. But the whole operational plan has not been looked at. As early as last night, I heard the minister still talking about the system being robust and food being sent to various schools and I was a little bit disappointed…”
Dr Peter Anti

Dr Anti stated that the ministry of education seem adamant and it is likely the current “operational plan of supplying food to the schools is still what is going to be in place”. He noted that once government and the ministry are not ready to change the operational plan, “we will still be revisiting this issue” as time goes on.

Government must admit challenges in education sector

The Executive Director of IFEST iterated that the issue will persist so long as “our leaders do not want to accept the fact” that the education sector is in a challenging situation and they must take steps to address it.

“I have said that the difficulty we are having in our secondary education system at this time is because there has not been an admission that we are in a difficult situation. I think that when leaders accept that there are challenges, then their mind is now tuned to solve those challenges or problems.”
Dr Peter Anti

Dr Anti expressed that when leaders “pretend that everything is well” and irrespective of how others feel about the situation, because they have the power to make changes into the system, it becomes difficult for anybody to address those challenges. He expressed the need for stakeholders and heads of schools to mount more pressure on government.

“I think the time has come for them to also come forth, so that the managers will sit up and realize that what is being published in the media, what all other stakeholders are talking about is really what is on the ground. When there is a discrepancy between the ideas and the views that is coming from the stakeholders, civil society organisations, parents and what the authorities are telling the managers, it becomes difficult for us to reach an equilibrium…”
Dr Peter Anti