The Western Regional President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Justin Nelson has suggested that as a way of easing the burden on the government’s flagship policy on Free Senior High School, parents must be made to pay for feeding of their children in the Senior High Schools.
Mr Nelson said this in an interview with Spice 91.9 FM in Takoradi.
Mr Nelson said, “Amongst other things, parents whose children are boarders in SHS must pay for the feeding of their wards because the government is overburdened with the expenses of making provisions of learning materials, school uniforms and amongst other things free to these children under the policy.”
He was of the view that there is no equity in the running of the programme because boarders tend to benefit from the programme more than a day – students do. He touted that day students only get one meal per day as compared to boarders, which makes it uneven.
“There’s no equity in the free SHS policy. Day students enjoy one hot meal in the afternoon as boarders enjoy three square meals every day.
He stated that guardians who wish for their wards to be residing in the school make provisions for the school authority to make foods available and ready for students.
Justin Nelson also associated the lack of foods in the Senior High Schools to the Buffer Stock Company. He mentioned that the Company is undersupplying schools with foodstuffs thus leading to a shortage of food items in schools.
“Because the supply has been operating on the same feeding rate from 2017 to 2022, they do not give the required supply of food to the schools because they run at a loss. No business operator wants to make losses doing business,” he alleged.
