Education Minister admits challenges in feeding Free SHS students

The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum says there are challenges confronting the feeding of about 1.4 million students each day in the various government Senior High Schools across the country.

Speaking in an interview monitored by Thisterm.com, he said the government through the Free Senior High School policy feeds one million, four hundred thousand students three times every day, thus, breakfast, lunch and supper.

“If you are feeding 1.4 million students a day, there will definitely be challenges. I will not sit here as a minister of education and say that there are no challenges. The students we are feeding are many,” Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said.

Asked what his outfit is doing to address food shortage in schools, Adutwum said the government does not expect the students to lose interest in going to school because of hunger for this it has added feeding to the educational policy.

The Education Minister acknowledged the great job done by the Buffer stock adding that the Ghana Commodity Exchange has been helpful with the provision of food anytime the Buffer runs out of stock.

Speaking further, the Minister in Charge of Education mentioned that some heads of schools have been going to the aid of their sister schools anytime there is a food crisis because they have the welfare of the students at heart.

“I have been a headmaster before and I am aware of how daunting of a task it is to be a headmaster. However, some headmasters are more proactive than others

Some will call me even before their food runs out and the ministry has always been available to restock their stores with food items. The ministry does this so that the headmasters can ensure proper supervision of teaching and learning across the schools,” he added.