The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has appealed to government to allow school authorities procure food items directly from the market.
The President of CHASS, Reverend Father Stephen Owusu Sekyere, says besides preventing food shortages in schools, it is economically prudent to do so.
Rev Sekyere made the suggestion at the 61st Conference of CHASS at the Achimota School in Accra on October 11, 2023.
“CHASS passionately wish to plead with management, to allow the various schools to procure their own food to the students. This has been our holy and unblemished plea for some years now. This has become necessary due to the disappointment from some suppliers and the accompanying food shortage and logistical challenges”, the President of CHASS appealed.
Currently, under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, food items are procured through suppliers.
The National Food Buffer Stock Company is responsible for distributing food to schools under the Free SHS policy. However, inadequate and delayed supply of food stuff have hindered the smooth implementation of this arrangement.
CHASS holds the view that taking away the responsibility of supplying food from the National Food Buffer Stock Company will curb the perennial food shortage.
Buffer Stock Indebtedness to Food Suppliers
Members of the Food Supplier’s Association in July this year, picketed the offices of the Ghana Buffer Stock Company Limited (GBSCL), to register their displeasure over GHC270 million debt owed them.
As a way of re-enforcing their demands, some of them cooked, bathed and slept on the premises of their debtors for few days. This affected the smooth running of some schools who depend on these suppliers for various food items. The government later released GH¢100 million to settle part of the debt owed by the Ghana Buffer Stock Company Limited to these suppliers.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, subsequently directed the Business Committee of the House to ensure that the ministers of Finance, Education and Food and Agriculture appeared before the House to apprise it of the supposed challenges that were making it difficult to pay the suppliers.
Growing Indiscipline in Schools
The school heads expressed concern about rising indiscipline among senior high school students and requested government to allow them discretionary powers to enforce discipline in the schools despite dictates of the new code of conduct.
“CHASS is concerned about the increasing indiscipline that have bedeviled most senior high schools of late. Acts including, smoking, drug abuse, hooliganism, bullying, occultism, have their roots in the homes and communities of the culprits,” CHASS lamented.
Rev Sekyere added “while we acknowledge the recently approved code of conduct in schools, CHASS is of the firm belief that heads of schools must be given some discretionary powers to handle more serious issues at the level of the Board of Governors to efficiently manage justice delivery in our schools”
In 2017, the Ghana Education Service banned corporal punishment in schools to promote the rights of school children. While child rights activists have welcomed this directive, others say it has heightened indiscipline in schools.
In November 2021, a student was stabbed at the Konongo Odumase SHS which led to the death of a first-year student. The incident resulted from an attempt by the deceased to resolve a scuffle between some Form 2 students and his mates.
In July this year, in a viral video, at the Adisadel College, one student was seen locking the arms of a school mate and forcefully hitting his face against a metal bed. This resulted in profuse bleeding below the victim’s right eye.
The incident sparked outrage and concerns among parents, students, and the general public.
President Akufo-Addo who spoke at the same event, refuted claims that the quality of education has declined since the introduction of the Free SHS policy
“Furthermore, the results for each batch of the graduates whom I call the Akufo-Addo graduates, have surpassed those chalked in in 2016, prior to my assumption of office,” he said.
“Quality, despite the increase in enrollment figures, has not declined,” the President stressed.
The theme for the 61st anniversary was quality education, teacher- student wellbeing and global education trends.