SHS food shortage:Northern Region CHASS threatens to close schools over lack of funds for food
The issue of the shortage of food in our senior high schools is back again. The latest group to threaten the closure of schools over food shortages is the northern region chapter of CHASS.
The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) in the Northern Region has threatened to disrupt the academic calendar if they don’t get the money to help them buy food in their schools.
The council released a letter addressed to the Regional Director of Ghana Education Service and signed by the Rev. Edward Azeka Williams and Felix Tsri Kwame. The Northern Region CHASS made it known that the non-payment of money for perishables may lead to the closure of schools in their region.
The regional CHASS says their suppliers, who usually provide credit for perishable items like eggs and meat, are no more willing to continue with the supply due to the huge amount owed to them.
The heads in the region thus revealed that for the whole of the first semester, which lasted for close to 11 weeks, the government did not release funds for perishable food items.
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The letter of the Northern CHASS, which was cited by Citi News, read in part, “On the foregoing, we wish to state that if we do not get immediate release of the SHS students of the single track schools who would be due to return to school tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16, 2022, they would not report until we get money.” This also includes those in the transitional schools who are billed to report on September 4, 2022. “
You will recall that the Minister of education confirmed that the government owes the buffer food stock an amount of GHS340 million.
The issue became a topical one, with many Ghanaians calling for a review of the policy to curtail the shortfalls in it.
The Ministry of Education responded by saying the Minister of Education intervened and that a huge quantity of food was being sent to the schools.
It is now clear that the government sent only the raw food without the money that was supposed to be used to buy perishables.
We also remember that the principals of colleges of education wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education in which they indicated they would be forced to let the students feed themselves if the government did not release money owed to them.
The money has since been paid and that issue resolved. We are still counting on the government to do the needful at the senior high school level in order not to disrupt the academic calendar.
