Story by: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), an education think thank, Mr. Kofi Asare, is calling for the review of the feeding component of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme.
According to him, the current system should be critically looked at to allow parents who can afford to pay to bear the feeding cost of their wards.
His call comes on the back of reports of food shortages in some public Senior High Schools. This dire situation compelled some heads of schools across the country to consider shutting down their schools if the government fails to intervene.
When asked if there are any interventions to stop the annual occurrence, Mr. Asare maintained that it was high time the government reviewed the feeding component of the FSHS policy.
“The solution is having a system that ensures that the Minister of Finance will disburse an average of GH¢100 every month to oil the food distribution and most importantly, clear the about GH¢320 million backlogs.”
“It should be possible to means-test the students and ask children of middle-to-higher income-earning Ghanaians to pay,” Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch reiterated.
He explained that the Ministry of Finance should be blamed for the food shortages in SHS and not the Education Ministry. “The Ministry of Finance’s failure to release enough funds to pay food suppliers has been the course for this unfortunate dilemma.”
