Food prices hike will affect quality of school meals – SHS heads

School heads say the rise in the price of food items on the market will make it difficult to feed their students at the rate of GHc 3.30 as approved by the Ghana Education Service.
The President of the Conference Heads of Assisted Senior Secondary Schools (CHASS) Mr Samuel Ofori Adjei, has said that the new feeding fee, which is an increment of 50 percent over the existing rate, will affect the quality and quantity of food served in school dining halls.
The average pricing of some of the staple food items at various markets in Kumasi were as follows:
Crate of eggs: GHc 12
Yam: GHc 40 per a bundle of four
Basket of tomatoes: GHc 40
Rice: GHc 2 per cup
Onions: GHc 10 per one tomato tin (konko)
Barekese Senior High School head master, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi-Asiedu, said he agreed with CHASS’s position that the new rate would affect the quality of food supplied to the students.
Meanwhile, some traders who were made to comment on the new feeding fee suggested to government to consider at least, GHc 5 per head as a reasonable figure for school feeding which would cater for the basic nutritional value of meals served to students.