Govt urged to release feeding grants to special schools

However, the common problem confronting authorities of the 34 special schools in the country is the delay in the release of subvention by the government.

To enable the schools to continue with effective academic work, managements have appealed to the government to release their subvention of feeding grants to enable them to settle their creditors to ensure regular supply of foodstuff.

Abdul-Hamid reports from Gbego that the headteacher of the Gbego School for the Deaf in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region, Mr Felix Neetege Faatah, has appealed to the government to release their subvention of feeding grants to enable them to settle their creditors to ensure regular supply of foodstuff.

He said but for the benevolence of their suppliers they could not have opened for the term, indicating their suppliers had agreed to give them food on credit with the assurance of paying them before the end of the term.

He said the school was currently facing some challenges which needed external interventions, and that they had been put on a prepaid meter and needed to buy power every week which was a drain on their resources, adding that the two old vehicles of the school constantly broke down and needed to be repaired frequently.

From Cape Coast, Joe Okyere reports that the Cape Coast School for the Blind would not be closed down despite the delay in the release of subvention by the government.

This is because the school has enough food to sustain its running.

A source at the school told the Daily Graphic that it had not been the intention of the management of the school to close it down for the non-payment of its subvention.

The source emphasised that the school had enough food to meet the requirements of the 430-student population, and, therefore, did not warrant closing it down.

It, however, said the school administration was expecting the subvention to be released before the end of the term to boost its food supplies.

It said the school was expected to vacate on July 24.

In another report, Nana Konadu Agyeman reports from Koforidua that the non-payment of subvention to the Koforidua School for the Deaf was taking a severe toll on the academic work and the upkeep of the under-privileged children as well as on the administrative function of the school.

The institution, established in 1975, has a 169 pupil population made up of 92 boys and 77 girls from kindergarten to the JHS.

Sources at the school told the Daily Graphic that the delay of the subvention had compelled the school to depend on the kindness of creditors.

'We have little challenge when it comes to feeding these children as our creditors have been kind to us and have refrained from disturbing us for their money', sources stated.

Despite the threat of not re -opening school due to lack of funds from the government, the Wa Methodist School for the Blind, is in session, writes George Folley, Wa.

This is because the school authorities have negotiated with food contractors to supply them food items while waiting for grants from the central government.

A visit to the school indicated that students of the school were going about their normal studies while others, especially the final year students, were preparing feverishly towards their Basic School Certificate Examination.

According to a teacher who wanted to remain anonymous but for the cordial relationship with some of the food contractors the school would have had difficulties in feeding the students.

He, however, expressed the hope that the situation would normalise with the release of more funds.

According Nurudeen Salifu, the Savelugu School for the Deaf in the Northern Region has been relying heavily on its suppliers to keep supplying food items to the school on credit, the Head of the school, Madam Gertrude Dasah, stated in an interview with the Daily Graphic.

She said although the school had an arrangement with the suppliers to pay them anytime the school received its subvention, it took several months before the school was able to settle the debts.

'They are now fed up with us and some of them are threatening to stop supplying food items on credit basis,' she said, adding that these suppliers were petty traders who required the monies to keep them in business.

On Monday, the school held a crisis meeting with the executive members of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the school.

The headmistress of the Garden City Special School for the Intellectually Disabled in Kumasi, Dr Rosalind Frimpomaa-Adjepong, told the Daily Graphic that following a decision taken at the mid-year conference of the schools held in Kumasi last week, authorities of all the 34 special schools in the country decided on May 15, this year, not to reopen the schools for the last term of the 2012/2013 academic year until they received their subventions from the government, writes Kwame Asare Boadu.

Consequently, students who were expected to report to their various schools on Tuesday, after vacation have been asked to stay at home until the situation got normal.

'We have conveyed the decision to the parents and guardians of our students and they have complied accordingly,' Dr Frimpomaa-Adjepong said.

Dr Frimpomaa-Adjepong said the special schools which included schools for the visually impaired, the hearing impaired and the intellectually disabled had run out of funds for their day-to-day operations.

They were also heavily indebted to their creditors because of the delay in releasing grants.