Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country have enough food to feed students without difficulties, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, has said.
He assured parents and stakeholders in education that there was no cause for alarm about reports of food shortages in schools, saying that the government had put measures in place to ensure a regular supply of food to schools.
The minister was addressing the media at Osei Kyeretwie Senior High School (OKESS) which is one of the distribution centres for schools in the Kumasi Metropolis.
He was in the school as part of a four-day working visit in the Ashanti Region to engage with students and inspect ongoing projects.
He took advantage of the visit to inspect the warehouse which was stocked with large quantities of assorted foods such as rice, maize, beans, gari, flour and various kinds of canned foods.
Dr Adutwum said as part of the government’s efforts to ensure a sustainable supply of food to the schools, it had contracted a company called Commodity Exchange to supply food in addition to the Buffer Stock.
He said the challenges of food supply associated with the implementation of the Free Senior High Schools informed the addition of Commodity Exchange to find lasting solutions to the shortage of food in schools.
“We have also made sure funds for the purchase of perishables are released to the schools on time to ensure students are fed without excuses,” the minister stated.
He said the president was committed to addressing all challenges confronting the Free Education Programme to preserve the huge benefits of the programme for posterity.
William Darkwa, the national coordinator of the Free Senior High School Programme, said OKESS was one of 54 distribution centres across the country where food for the schools were stored.
He reiterated that there was adequate food in the schools, adding that, feeding the students was an important component of the programme that could not be compromised.
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