The Ministry of Education (MoE) has organized an inspection visit to the various Senior High Schools nationwide. The inspection aims to ensure that students are being fed the right amount and quality of food provided under the school feeding initiative of the incumbent government.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Mr.Kwesi Kwarteng stated that contrary to the general narrative, the food fed to students at the various Senior High Schools nationwide is of an acceptable quality.
He indicated that the government never admitted to the poor quality of food supplied to schools. He also maintained that like any other activity that involves human engagement, the school feeding program has challenges associated with it.
“Our responsibility here first of all is to visit the school, access it for ourselves, have first-hand information particularly what involves the food distribution and feeding in terms of the quality and the quality. Then from there, we should be able to provide intervention when necessary”.
Mr.Kwesi Kwarteng
Mr. Kwarteng also specified that if the outcome of the inspection suggests that the program needs an improvement, the Ministry of Education will take the necessary steps to improve it to ensure access to quality food.
He stated that the inspection, which was organized by the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, is being conducted nationwide and not just in the nation’s capital, Accra. He maintained that personnel from the Ministry of Education and the Free SHS Secretariat are deployed to the other regions to conduct the inspections.
A staffer of the Free SHS Secretariat mentioned that the inspection has revealed that the narrative about food shortage is false. She indicated that all schools she and her colleagues visited have at least fifteen out of eighteen items on the supply list in stock.
The Headmistress of the Labone Senior High School, Madam Rejoice Akua Akolor, also stated that the school has food in stock and students are regularly fed. She also indicated that the school’s collecting point which is Saint Thomas Aquinas Senior High School has more in stock to be distributed.
Background To The Issue
Recently, questions concerning the quality and availability of food being served to students under the School Feeding initiative of the government have resurfaced. The popular narrative is that there is food scarcity in some schools which results in students being served with food of poor quality.
It could be recalled that in 2023, the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) mourned the inability of the Food Buffer Stock Company to supply food items for Senior High Schools nationwide.
The CHASS argued then that the shortage of food was affecting academic work and that it had become difficult to keep schools open and operating.
“Some schools have received items that when put together, could not be used to feed the students. For example, if you deliver beans, maize, rice, and maybe gari, you don’t expect the school to use those items to feed the students because you have not given me oil”
CHASS
In a rather interesting turn of events, some members of the CHASS, who are mainly Headmasters of high schools in the Eastern region, stated that their institutions have not experienced any food shortage. This left the public torn between whether the initial claim of the first group of CHASS members was false or not.
However, according to Eduwatch Africa, 70% percent of the budget allocated to Free SHS is spent on feeding. Eduwatch also indicated that about 1.3 to 1.4 billion is spent a year on feeding Free SHS students while it speculated that the enormous sum spent on the feeding program may be the cause of the food shortage.
Eduwatch Africa also disclosed that the government was unable to pay the Food Buffer Stock Company and has accrued debt over the years hence the inability of the Food Buffer Stock Company to provide the schools with food items.
Reports of the ongoing inspections in the various schools also seem to contradict the current public’s narrative on the issue. While the narrative of the challenges of the school feeding program keeps changing from the government to the public, it is certain that some schools if not most may be facing a food crisis which perhaps the government and the Ministry of Education do not want to admit to.
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