Gov’t lures assisted SHSs to open without feeding grant

Students of second cycle institutions in the Northern Region have returned to the classrooms after staying home for almost two weeks, necessitated by government’s failure to defray the accumulated feeding grants for three terms.

The scholarship secretariat in the wake of media reportage on the issue later claimed part of the monies required were paid into the accounts of the various schools.

This assurance assuaged the school heads to call the students back to school, but Citi News checks revealed that, the said monies are yet to hit their accounts.

Bursars of three schools within the Tamale Metropolitan area on condition of anonymity told Citi News government deceived them to resume academic work. According to them, the schools might be closed down soon if government fails to immediately pay the accumulated debt.

Successive governments’ failure to pay feeding grants on time, has always distorted the academic calendar of second cycle institutions in the three regions of the north.

This situation has always contributed to students’ poor performance at the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASCCE) level.

Meanwhile, heads of Senior High Schools in the Upper East Region who called back students on Sunday 26th June after  a two-weeks closure, are threatening  to close down the schools after government failed to credit their individual accounts for the feeding of the students.

Some headteachers told Citi News off record that the various schools have not received any money from the scholarship secretariat after government supposedly made payment of GHC44.9 million to offset one-term out of the three terms arrears of the 2015/2016 academic year.

They added that, they can only  manage the situation for about three(3) days and if they still do not receive any money from the secretariat, they will have no option except to close down the schools.

The Upper East Regional Chairperson of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Francisca Yinzura, conceded that, the schools were yet to receive the one-term arrears from the scholarship secretariat.

“Normally the scholarship secretariat will call us to come for the cheque  but up till now they have not called us yet to come for the cheque, but  I do not want to speak to the 3 days threats by the head teachers’ however we have asked students who are owing the schools to pay school fees to the schools to help feed the students’ because it is what we use to run our schools since the beginning of the academic year 2015/2016” Yinzura noted.

–
By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah & Fred Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana