‘Pay feeding grant arrears to northern schools’ - BONABOTO

BONABOTO, a development-oriented association that comprises people from Bolga, Nabdam, Bongo, Tongo and their environs, has expressed its dissatisfaction and disappointment at the delay in releasing the feeding grants to public schools in the three northern regions.

“We note with concern the annual delays in releasing the feeding grants and the accompanied postponements of reopening dates of public schools in the three northern regions,” it said.

Delay

It will be recalled that in 2017 due to delay in the release of these grants, schools in the three regions of the north postponed the reopening date from May 4 to 23, 2017, three clear weeks behind their counterparts in the southern sector.

It is barely some few days for senior high schools to re-open and yet the arrears for the second and third terms feeding grants for 2017/2018 academic year have not been paid and there are no signs of when they will be released.

“We wish to state that with the introduction of the double track and semester systems any lost of contact hours will have an enormous negative effect on the outcome of the students”, BONABOTO added.

Introduction

It also noted that with the introduction of double track and semester systems for the senior high school (SHS) One and Two students and trimester for SHS Three students, facilities were going to face a lot of pressure, and urged the government and the Ministry of Education to take immediate steps to release the feeding grant arrears and the first term grant for the 2018/2019 academic year to enable the schools to reopen on time.

The statement said the association appreciated the enormous financial pressure on the government and the need to deal with a gap of 181,000 students resulting from the quantum increase in the number of students as a result of the government's laudable free senior high school programme and was thus ready to contribute its quota to make it a success for every Ghanaian child to benefit.