CHASS Urges Parents to Send Food to Students Amid School Feeding Crisis

The latest advice from the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) to parents is to ensure that their wards come to school with food. The call to parents by CHASS is an indirect plea for assistance from parents to lend support to the schools.

Ahead of reopening, CHASS called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reschedule the reopening date for students. It stated that the call was due to a lack of funds to take care of the feeding of students, but the GES disregarded this request and reopened schools for SHS3 students. Just five days into the new semester, the National Secretary of CHASS, Primus Baro, in an interview with JoyNews, indicated that the current situation in schools is worrying.

He further stated that schools are now forced to ration food. He has called on parents to provide their children with the needed financial and non-financial support to complement the government’s provision.

“I encourage parents, and I have already advised my PTA to this effect, to let their children bring food like gari, shitor, and sugar to supplement whatever the school provides. I urge parents across the country, as the food situation has still not improved in the past two and three years, and it has worsened at this particular time,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsdesk on Wednesday, January 8.

He revealed that the situation is particularly severe in schools in northern Ghana.

“Food supplies are not reaching the schools. In places like the Upper West, Upper East, and Northern regions, apart from rice, the schools have no stable food supplies. Oil is completely unavailable. For example, in my school, I currently don’t have a single drop of oil, so my matron has been using margarine to replace oil for cooking. I don’t have maize or beans—only rice and some gari,” he added.

READ: Why Did CHASS Stay Silent on Akufo-Addo’s Free SHS Debt? – Dr. Clement Apaak

He stressed that “We are still relying on the old practices of sending students with what they have, and that’s the only reason we allowed the students to return. Otherwise, the situation is still far from ideal.”

The Free Senior High School (SHS) programme, initiated by the previous Nana Akufo-Addo-led government, has faced numerous challenges over the years, including insufficient classroom and dormitory facilities, inadequate food, and more.

READ: CHASS Threatens to Delay School Reopening Over Unpaid Free SHS Feeding Funds

Critics have also argued that the programme has led to an increase in the number of SHS graduates, but not necessarily in the quality of education.

The new president, John Mahama, prior to the December 7th election, disclosed that he will improve on the feeding situation in second-cycle schools to ensure quality food is served to students. It is hoped that his next four years as president will bring about the needed transformation in the Free SHS and its associated programmes.

However, the new president, John Mahama, before winning the election, promised to revitalise the programme rather than abolish it.