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The Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) is appealing to parents and guardians to support their children with food items such as gari, shitor, and sugar to help mitigate severe feeding challenges in senior high schools across the country.
This plea comes amidst reports of food shortages and financial constraints affecting school feeding programs under the Free Senior High School (SHS) initiative.
Speaking on JoyNews, CHASS National Secretary Primus Baro described the situation as dire, with many schools resorting to food rationing just five days after reopening.
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Mr. Baro highlighted that the crisis is particularly acute in northern Ghana, where schools are grappling with a lack of basic food supplies.
“Food supplies are not reaching the schools. In places like Upper West, Upper East, and the Northern regions, apart from rice, the schools have no stable food supplies. Oil is completely unavailable. For example, in my school, I currently don’t have a single drop of oil, so my matron has been using margarine to replace oil for cooking. I don’t have maize or beans—only rice and some gari,” he revealed.
The CHASS secretary emphasised that parents’ contributions are critical to keeping the schools running under these challenging circumstances.
“I encourage parents, and I have already advised my PTA to this effect, to let their children bring food like gari, shitor, and sugar to supplement whatever the school provides,” he urged.
He lamented that the current food crisis is a continuation of issues faced in recent years, which have only worsened.
CHASS had previously appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to postpone the reopening of schools due to unresolved financial issues, including the government’s non-payment for perishable foods supplied last year. However, the GES declined this request, leaving schools to grapple with the shortages.
