School feeding grant per student remains ¢1.00 in the Basic School under the Ghana School Feeding Programme despite the increase in prices of goods and services.
This amount has been there since 2016.
In August 2019, the government was seeking to adjust the feeding grant from GH¢1.00 per pupil to GH¢1.50 under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) but that has not taken effect.
However, some aggrieved caterers working under the Ghana School Feeding Programme have threatened to stop cooking for students if the government fails to increase the feeding grant to three cedis per head.
The caterers say the GHS1.00 allocated to children under the program is woefully inadequate and unfair.
The Ghana School Feeding Programme was introduced in 2005 as part of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar III and the second Millennium Development Goals to help address extreme poverty, children’s nutritional and educational issues.
At the Senior High School level, the Government increased the feeding grant per student from ¢1.20p to ¢1.80pm in 2017.
The Ghana Civil Society Platform on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in January 2020 petitioned the government to review the grants allocated for the School Feeding Programme (GSFP) to enhance the quality of food served.
The platform was demanding that the government increases the amount to GH¢2.50 which will impact the quality of diet.
In August 2009, Government increased the school feeding grant from GH80p to GH¢1.20 for all public senior high schools throughout the country.
Mr. Felix Baidoo, the Press Secretary to the Ministry of Education, on May 14, 2021, said an amount of GH¢125,998,145.00 out of which GH¢83,184,673.00 went to the NAFCO and GH¢42,813,472.00 to the school heads for the payment of perishable components of the feeding program.
Again, he said on April 28, 2021, GH¢102,350,871.20 was paid to the Buffer Stock Company and heads for the first semester.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
