Government’s ‘One Hot Meal’ for teachers and students of both private and public Junior High Schools across the country has begun. successful in the Upper West region. Visits by the Radio Waa’s News Team to a number of schools in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region showed that teachers and students had received meals as per promised by government.
At the Kambali Islamic JHS, the News Team gathered that on Monday, classes ended before the meals arrived. According to sources at the premises, the meals were returned to the Wa Municipal Assembly since both staff and students were unavailable. It was communicated to the news team that the packed foods were however returned to the school because a few students returned to the school premises for some extra classes.
At the Tendaamba JHS on Tuesday, there were several complains about the quality of food from both teachers and students. The students who spoke to the News crew were particularly unhappy that caterers in charge of the meals served them banku with a single boiled egg. There were also claims that the banku was not properly prepared. The students meanwhile did not have problems with meals that were served on the previous day; Monday.
Radio Waa 92.1 has since been unable to reach the Upper West Regional Director in charge of the School Feeding Program for responses to the complaints raised by the teachers and students.
Meanwhile the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has restated its stance that private school teachers would have benefited more if government had offered teachers cash rather than the free hot meals. The Ag. President of GNAPS, Dr Damasus Tuurosong said that, cash offers would have allowed teachers the leeway to engage in other activities.
Dr. Tuurosong was also worried about the quality of foods shared among schools. He also mentioned that some schools received more meals than others while other schools received less than their numbers.
He called on the Department of School Feeding to streamline its activities and ensure that the issues that have been raised are fully addressed.
