Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) says most Senior High Schools across the country are yet to receive any food items or funds from either the Ghana Education Service (GES) or the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NBSC).
The Conference which consists largely of headteachers across the country says the perennial disbursement challenges are putting a strain on their reopening activities as it is difficult to take in students with no food items to feed them.
President of CHASS who is also the Headmaster of Opoku Ware Senior High School in Kumasi, Rev. Fr. Stephen Owusu Sekyere, said the schools are expecting government to release their allocated funds in time to ensure that the reopening date is not postponed due to food shortages.
Rev. Fr. Owusu Sekyere who was speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, monitored by Ghananewsonline.com.gh said the government defaulted on its promise to release the funds into their respective bank accounts by 9 am on January 10.
“We were promised that we should go to the bank in the morning at 9 am and that the money will be deposited into our accounts but as we speak, we keep checking our accounts and no school has received any money from their bank,” he stated.
The CHASS president said the government is also yet to supply the various schools with their food quotas in anticipation of the new academic year.
“I am having reports from some schools across the country that they are yet to receive food items – we’ve been in touch with Buffer Stock, and they say they are supplying the schools with some food items, but my information tells me otherwise.”
The CHASS president said all hopes have diminished and all they can do at the moment is to hope that the government heeds to their concerns.
“Students keep reporting, and we don’t know what to do at this point so all we can do at the moment is keep waiting for the monies to be released – We don’t have power over what happens or when the food items are supplied,” Rev Fr. Owusu Sekyere lamented.
Source: Ghananewsonline.com.gh