Hot meals for pupils, teachers will be executed easily – Gender Ministry promises

The Gender and Social Protection Ministry has said executing the directive by the President to distribute hot meals to pupils and teachers at the basic education level will be done seamlessly.

According to the Minister, Cynthia Morrison, because there is a register of students at the Junior High School (JHS) level, her outfit will have an accurate number of students to work with.

“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 told Citi News.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced the directive on Sunday, August 16, 2020, when he was delivering the 15th national address on measures taken to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The hot meals will be served to final year Junior High School students who are currently preparing for their final exams – the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) – in September and the teachers assisting with their preparations.

Africa Education Watch has, meanwhile, said the hot meals intervention is unnecessary.

“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,” Executive Director, Kofi Asare said.

He is convinced that the President is capitalising on the campaign season to boost his approval ratings among parents ahead of the polls in December.