‘We need enough food and furniture before schools reopen’ – CHASS to Gov’t

The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), is appealing to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to within this week, ensure that enough food is distributed to all schools across the country to avert any shortage.

The President of CHASS, Abubakar Yakub, in an interview with Citi News, indicated that even though the distribution of food has begun in some schools, they are not sufficient to sustain the students throughout their stay for the term.

He said the best approach would be for the government to ensure that the food items are sent in ahead of time and also other resources such as furniture which is lacking in a lot of the Senior High Schools are provided before the reopening of schools in April.

“We’ve already made them aware that we need to sit and do proper planning and ensure that some of these things go to the schools before school reopens. That way you can do a proper management of the school, otherwise you find a lot of heads engaged in the issue of food when they should rather concentrate on how they can get quality outcomes as far as education at their level is concerned,” he said.

Abubakar Yakub further expressed concern that first year students in the various Senior High Schools may not have furniture to use when they report to school. He said desks in classrooms and beds in dormitories are not enough to accommodate the freshmen students.

“Some schools cannot even receive form one students if they are not supplied with furniture. We’ve made the government aware and beds in various dormitories are in short supply. Previously parents were helping us get these things but with the inception of Free SHS, the burden is on the government to provide all these things.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei-Adutwum, has given assurances that all the resources needed by the schools will be provided before April 4, when the schools resume.

“We are coming up with new ways of making sure that they get the resources that they need to run the school well. This year, we are going to give them the list of all the food items they should be receiving so that if the item is not in, they will know and follow-up with the Buffer-Stock Company,” he said