An amount of GHC50 million has been released by the Finance Ministry to Senior High Schools nationwide to cater for feeding of students and settling a part of arrears owed by the government, according to the Ministry of Education.

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This comes after the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) wrote to the Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum to release funds owed to schools in respect of recurrent fees and carting of food items and all arrears for Day schools for the second semester of the 2023/2024 academic year.

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Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, confirmed the amount released but failed to disclose the outstanding amount to ensure more supply of food for the students."Just at the end of this week, an amount of GHC50 million was issued to schools to be able to settle some of these outstanding arrears or give them the capacity to buy perishable food items. I will have to verify and confirm.

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I am unable to put a figure to it," he said in an interview on Accra-based TV3.According to CHASS, some key food items have not been supplied to schools since the inception of the 2024/2025 academic year. This has made the feeding of students very difficult for School Managements and is creating some disciplinary problems and uneasy calm on school campuses.

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 Presently, the government runs a feeding system where 70 percent of foodstuffs are supplied by the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO), while the 30 percent are purchased by school heads upon release of funds by the government.When government fails to provide cash timely, head teachers are forced to get suppliers elsewhere and offset the debt when funds are released by the government.

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 Presently, government provides 18 food items including maize, beans, peanuts, millet, soya beans to over 700 SHSs, technical, vocational and community development schools.The government spent in excess of GHC2.7 billion to pay food suppliers under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy between 2017 and 2022.

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