The Ministry for Gender and Social Protection says it is prepared to distribute hot meals to Junior High School students and their teachers as directed by the President.
In his 15th COVID-19 address to the nation, President Nana Akufo-Addo charged the Ministry for Gender and Social Protection to oversee the distribution of one hot meal a day to each final year student in Junior high school and their teachers until the end of their external exams in September 2020.
The Minister, Cynthia Morrison mentioned in Citi news interview that distribution will not be a tedious exercise because the Ministry already has data on the exact number of students and teachers expected to be served. The Minister also said the Ministry will work hand in hand will the School Feeding Programme to prepare the meals.
“We have the register of the students and so we have the accurate number of students that we are going to cater for. We also have the accurate number of teachers that we are going to cater for so it makes it easier than the first time we did the food allocation…Both private and public school children writing the BECE are going to benefit and it is the same school feeding caterers who are going to cater for the pupils,” she said.
She further noted that teachers from the various schools will integrated in order to provide feedback to the Ministry on the quantity and quality of the food served each day.
“The headmasters and the teachers will be the first complainants. So we are giving them a form, every food that comes, they will give us the quantity that came and the quality also is stated.”
Although some have commended the President’s move, others also think it is merely a waste of expenditure. One of such, is the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch Kofi Asare.
Mr Asare is of the view that, this intervention by government is needless. He believes that the decision is only a move by the President to win the heart of students and parents since there hasn’t been any complaints of students hungry.
“The President’s decision to provide one hot meal a day for JHS 3 students is a good token. We haven’t heard of any student complain of hunger, maybe he wants to make a Father-Christmas move. I think that we may have saved a lot of money between March when the schools closed and now from the school feeding program because no one is cooking for anyone. There should be a much better way of using that [saved] funds than cooking for everybody including those who don’t need the food,” he said.
“I think it is more of a political issue than an education issue…We are in a campaign season so Mr. President will like to look good before parents,” he stressed.
Follow Us
I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
