Senior High Schools’ In Ghana face food shortages

Some school heads and parents are making frantic efforts to get the authorities and members of the public to assist with food items to help feed students in public second-cycle schools.

This is because of the inadequate supply of food items to the schools’ Checks by the Daily Graphic in some schools in Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi, Bolgatanga and Ho indicated that while some of the schools were satisfied with food supplies, the situation in others was dire.

Parents said the situation had resulted in poor quality of food being served to students, as school heads tried to manage the situation with the few resources at their disposal.

However, the Ministry of Education said it had not received any official complaint from the schools regarding the shortage of foodstuffs, and that it would be glad if a list of the affected schools could be provided for action to be taken.

Cape Coast students lament

From Cape Coast, Shirley Asiedu-Addo and Edith Mensah report that some students of Mfantsipim School, St. Augustine’s College, Adisadel College, and Ghana National College said they did not go to the dining because the food served was deficient in quantity and quality.

“The porridge is too light and without bread and so in the morning I don’t go to the dining hall,” a student at Mfantsipim said.

Another student said: “Sometimes the quantity is small.” The Headmaster of Mfantsipim, Rev. Ebenezer Aidoo, said the food situation was dire but management was working within its means to ensure that the students were fed.

The Headmaster of St Augustine’s, Henry Arthur-Gyan, also said the school had no option but to manage the situation.

“We know there are challenges and so we manage with what we are provided. There is not much we can do about it,” he said.

At Adisadel, a source who pleaded anonymity said supplies were not as forthcoming as they used to be.

“We are giving the students meals within what we are supplied,” it said.

The Headmaster of Ghana National, Joseph Ato Sarpong, said supplies from the Ghana Buffer Stock Company to the school kept coming late.

“There is simply not enough food to feed the students,” he said.

“Form One students came in over two months and we struggled to feed them. It has been a struggle with the forms two and three students too, but we are trying. It is a difficult situation for management,” he bemoaned.

Mr. Sarpong emphasised that while efforts had been made to get the authorities to act promptly, the school had not received a favourable reaction from the company that supplied the food items.