Feeding system won’t change under free SHS – Minister

Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Education Minister, has dismissed claims that students are going to be fed once in a day under the free senior high school (SHS) programme, the implementation of which starts in coming September.

He said no new feeding system for students would be introduced and that the schools would stick to the existing national menu plan.

Addressing the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) at its national meeting in Kumasi, he said “at no point will the new policy go contrary to the national menu for feeding students”.

He indicated that CHASS and the Ghana Education Service (GES) had already agreed on fees to be charged for feeding for each student.

He said to help address price differences for food, his ministry, acting together with the Food and Agriculture Ministry, had set up a committee in all the districts to make sure that food items were bought at reasonable prices.

He added that the Ministry would also engage food vendors for schools without canteens until such a time that they built canteens for them.

Touching on teaching and learning materials, Dr. Opoku Prempeh, said core text books would be distributed freely to students and that these had already been supplied to the schools.

Those of the elective subjects would also follow as soon as the schools re-opened.

He gave the assurance that there would be equity in the distribution of projects, saying, every school was going to receive its fair share of infrastructure development.

The Minister urged the headmasters and headmistresses to be visionary, innovative and hardworking to improve academic performance.

They should also ensure transparency in the financial management of the schools.