No School Feeding For Affluent Schools

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Posted on May 4, 2011

Flashback: Pupils queuing for food

THE DEPUTY National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Francis Gyarko has revealed that affluent schools on the programme will be taken off to make way for deprived public basic schools across the country.

The move is under a retargeting plan meant to re-design the second phase of the programme.

Mr. Gyarko disclosed this at a workshop organized in Ho by the organization to sensitize the media on GSFP activities, accept feedback and sort out inputs to be considered in the second phase design.

He noted that the removal of the affluent schools from the programme is not politically motivated but to ratify an anomaly that defeats its original intention.

"The basic concept of the programme is to provide children in deprived public primary schools and kindergartens with one hot nutritious meal prepared from locally grown foodstuffs on every school going day," he explained.

He therefore urged Ghanaians particularly parents and heads of the schools that will be affected by the exercise not to misinterpret it but consider it a measure to ensure equity and improve the lives of deprived parents and communities who cannot afford to feed their children adequately.

Mr. Gyarko added that GSFP needed an Act of Parliament to ensure its sustenance.

Irene Messiba of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development which is in charge of the programme said it was suspended due to some setbacks but would reach its set target by the end of this year.

In view of this, consultants have been contracted to undertake evaluation of the first phase and redesign the second phase to give it a facelift. She mentioned that even though the programme has increased caterer-farmer partnership, more needed to be done to ensure that foodstuffs for the programme are purchased from farmers.

Mrs. Messiba said school attendance, enrolment and retention has increased under the programme, an achievement many say is at the expense of quality teaching and learning due to overcrowding and over stretching of inadequate classrooms, furniture and teaching staff.

She urged regional coordinating councils, MMDAs, implementing agencies, the beneficiary schools and their communities to own the programme and ensure its adequate supervision and sustenance.

An official from the Netherlands Development Organization SNV, Sarah Agbey announced that an accountability component dubbed the Social Accountability Project (SAP) has been introduced into the GSFP to ensure that its duty bearers were held accountable to the public.

She explained that SAP is to ensure and enhance effective implementation of the school feeding programme through improved social accountability to increase interest, ownership and responsiveness of local stakeholders.

Mrs. Agbey appealed to the media to collaborate with implementers of the programme to adequately educate the public about it. She also asked them to publish constructive reports about the programme to win donor confidence and support.

From Fred Duodu, Ho

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