Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Education minister
Mrs. Margaret Bobi, headmistress of Chiana Senior High School (SHS), in the Upper East Region, has appealed to government to as a matter of urgency release feeding grant in arrears for the past two terms, to second cycle schools in the region.
She said the delay in releasing the funds was crippling effective management of affected schools.
Mrs. Bobi was speaking at the school’s 25th anniversary celebration on the theme, ‘Promoting quality secondary education in the 21st century, the role of stakeholders’.
He stressed that the delay in releasing feeding grants for second cycle schools in the region, was making the running of the school difficult, as suppliers were unwilling to supply schools with foodstuff.
“The grant for the past two terms has not been paid. As at now, we don’t have soap in our stores because suppliers are not willing to supply us on credit, so what do we do?. We plead with the Ghana Education Service to as a matter of urgency impress upon the government to release funds to enable us settle our indebtedness to our suppliers,” Mrs. Bobi stated.
She said the Chiana SHS with a population of 1,434, has only 52 teaching staff, one typist, 38 non-teaching staff and inadequate number of teachers for General Science, English, History and Home Economics, thereby affecting effective teaching and learning.
Mrs. Bobi appealed to government to lift the ban on recruitment to enable the education authorities to engage more teaching and non-teaching staff.
She also asked government to complete abandoned projects, saying the Chiana SHS did not have an assembly hall and dining hall, compelling students to have their gatherings and dining in the open.
Mrs Bobi said the congestion at the boys’ dormitory, has compelled management of the school to convert six classrooms into accommodation for the boys, compounding the problem of classrooms for students.
She appealed to the Regional Co-ordinating Council to abrogate the contract of the contractor working on the boys’ dormitory, for abandoning the project for several years, and re-award it to a serious contractor.
Mrs. Bobi urged contractors working on the school’s girls’ dormitory, administration block and dining hall projects that have stalled for some time now, to complete the projects in order to improve teaching and learning. citifmonline.com
