Felix Kwakye Ofosu, acting spokesperson to President John Dramani Mahama has assured that going forward the government will put adequate measures in place to address the shortfalls in feeding under the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme. This follows the release of GHS200 million to address the shortfalls about two weeks ago.
In an interview with Channel One Newsroom on Sunday, January 2, Ofosu criticized the previous government’s inadequate planning and execution of the education policy. This mismanagement resulted in schools reopening without sufficient food supplies. He stated, “About GHS200 million was allocated roughly a week to a week and a half ago to tackle the feeding shortages. Once again, due to poor planning and implementation, we found ourselves in a situation where schools were set to reopen, yet there was no food available for the students.”
He noted that when stakeholders in the education sector, particularly headmasters, requested that the government defer the opening date, the request was refused, resulting in schools reopening without food. “So upon taking office, President Mahama took decisive action and within a few days, he ordered that food be evacuated to the schools. In addition to that, GHS200 million was released to the various schools through the Ghana Education Service to procure food for the students,” Kwakye Ofosu added.
Kwakye Ofosu assured that going forward, adequate measures will be put in place to ensure that there is enough food to feed the students. “So for now, that has been done and going forward, adequate measures will be put in place to ensure that we have enough food to feed the students,” he noted.
By: Abigail Arthur