Hot meal for BECE students: Some schools miss out on day one in Jomoro

Correspondence from Western Region:

The President announced the initiative (Free Hot Meal for BECE students) in his 15th update on Sunday, August 24, 2020, on the country’s COVID-19 Response and said the decision was based on reports that some pupils were going hungry in school due to compliance with the safety protocols.

The initiative which commenced nationwide on Monday, August 24, 2020, is expected to end on September 20, 2020, and over 500,000 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in both public and private schools are benefiting from the programme.

However, some private and public schools in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region were not given the govt't free hot meal on Monday, August 24, 2020, Ghanaweb can report.

Speaking to some pupils and teachers on condition of anonymity, they told GhanaWeb they didn't know why they were excluded in the distribution of the free hot meal.

"We don't know why they didn't bring us some of the food, we are disappointed because government said we the private school students will be fed but today we didn't see anything we don't know whether from tomorrow going they will bring some to us or not", one worried teacher told GhanaWeb.

According to GhanaWeb findings, some of the schools within the Municipality who'd did not benefit from the initiative on Monday included; Almighty Papretor Junior High School at Tikobo No.1, Holy Star Academy Junior High School Psalms Preparatory Junior High School at Tikobo No.1, Ideal Basic School at Elubo and Roman Catholic Junior High School at Nawule.

In a telephone conversation with GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent on Tuesday, the Ghana School Feeding Programme Coordinator for Jomoro Municipality, Madam Rose Amponsah stated that due to the locations of some schools in the Municipality, her team couldn't reach them.

She also added that she had to travel to Takoradi for an emergency meeting hence her team's inability to supply the food to all the schools in the Municipality.

However, Madam Rose Amponsah around 1 pm, said all the public and private Junior High Schools in the area have been supplied with the free hot meal on the second day of the rollout.

"Yesterday I was in Takoradi for an emergency meeting so I didn't go round with my team and it is true some schools were not fed due to their locations. My team couldn't reach them but today I am part of the team and we have feed each student and teacher in all the private and public schools in Jomoro so we have resolved yesterday's challenges. President Akufo-Addo has told us to feed all private school students and public school students and we doing that" she said.

"The students are happy and they also thanking President Akufo-Addo for the initiative and I want to confirm that teachers are also being fed too", she added.

She, therefore, commended President Akufo-Addo for the initiative and urged all Ghanaians to embrace the programme. She promised to liaise with the media to make the initiative achieve its intended purpose.

Day two

A visit by GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent on Tuesday to Psalms Preparatory Junior High School at Tikobo No.1 in the Jomoro Municipality to verify the success of the second day of the initiative confirmed that indeed the students and teachers were served.

A teacher in the school who spoke to GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent on a condition of anonymity claimed food served to them was leftover.

"I didn't take some to eat because the food is leftover and some students too have not eaten their food, they think we are not Ghanaians, how can you give us yesterday's food to eat, as for me I will never eat such food. They (students) were provided with the food but refused to provide the food on the menu list", he said.

According to the teacher, his school was served rice from the previous day, whiles other schools were served Banku which was supposed to be the menu for the day.

"They gave us leftover rice instead of Banku whilst other schools were provided with the Banku in this same circuit", he added.