According to Elder Peter A. Gyamfi, Eastern Regional Chairman of the Conference of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), the government has released funds to Senior High Schools for the 2023 academic year under its perishables and recurrent expenditure.
According to him, the funds were divided into three lodgements: perishables for current form two and three students, recurrent expenditure for form three students who recently graduated from high school, and capital expenditure for form three students who recently graduated from high school.
Elder Gyamfi stated this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency about the readiness of the Eastern Region’s 90 senior high schools following the start of the 2022/2023 academic year earlier this week.
“The perishable is GH1.50p per student per day, and the recurring expenditure is used for maintenance and general school operations,” he explained.
However, he stated that only 15 of the 90 SHSs had received the three “itemised food items” to start the new academic year, which was discouraging.
“As we speak, Bufferstock has awarded contracts to food suppliers. “Of the 18 itemized food items, 10 schools received only beans, three schools received beans and maize, and two schools received beans and gari,” he said.
Beans, gari, rice, millet, maize, soya beans, tom brown, sugar, sardines, mackerels, milk, peanuts, flour, margarine, vegetable cooking oil, hot chocolate, and tin tomatoes are among the 18 items.
He stated that schools were still waiting for the 18 “itemized food items” to be delivered in order to feed the students.
Elder Gyamfi, who is also the Headmaster of Pentecost SHS in Koforidua, added that approximately 650 students had reported to school as of the end of Tuesday, with the hope that the number would increase in the coming days.
“You will be amazed at how eager students are to return to school. “About 650 students had reported out of a total population of 1,300 boarding students,” he said.
He thanked the Church of Pentecost for providing food to the school while authorities awaited supplies from the bufferstock company. Students were reporting for the 2023 academic year at Koforidua Senior High Technical School (Koforidua SecTech) and Adonteng Senior High School, according to the GNA.
Mr. Samuel Batarema, the Assistant Headmaster in charge of Administration at Koforidua SecTech, stated that all students were expected to return to school by Thursday to take a resumption examination.
He explained that the exam was designed to encourage all students to arrive on time so that school activities could begin as soon as possible.
The Secretary of the Eastern Regional Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr. Peter Danquah Kpakpo-Atsem, urged teachers to follow the teachers’ code of conduct.
On January 10, 2023, the new academic year for both Junior High Schools (JHS) and Senior High Schools (SHS) began, with many students, particularly SHS students, eager to return to school.
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