Takoradi, Aug 25, GNA-Students and staff in all public and private Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STMA) and the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality (EKMA) of the Western Region have enjoyed the government’s one hot meal a day.
It was in fulfilment of the promise President Akufo-Addo made in his 15th COVID-19 address to the nation.
The pupils were served jollof rice and one boiled egg in packs and one sachet water each, as pupils took their turns to be served amid observance of social distancing protocol.
Many of the public and private schools the Ghana News Agency visited had their meals except in some few cases, where some of them did not get theirs and were hoping to be served later in the week.
Some of the schools that did not get their share of the meals were Woode Methodist JHS, Sammest Education Complex, New Generation School Complex, Angel Grace School Complex, By His Grace International School and Adventist Preparatory School among others.
Meanwhile, some of the preparatory schools with large student populations like St. Francis International School, Morning Glory International School and Queen of Peace Preparatory School had two different caterers serving them.
Madam Grace Dosu, a caterer from one of the schools in Anaji, a suburb of Takoradi lamented that there was a challenge with the number of staff for some schools as their number went over the given quota, a situation she said needed to be addressed as she was not sure if she would be paid for the extra work put in on those unusual numbers.
Mr Charles Mintaba, Headteacher of the Jaycris Education Center whose school was served expressed satisfaction and stressed the need for proper coordination to prevent confusion among the caterers.
He disclosed that all seventy-three pupils of the school were served as well as five staff and bemoaned that at least they should have served the staff with bottled water instead of sachet water.
Ms Abena Kwallah, Western Regional Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), explained that existing caterers were engaged for the preparation of the daily meals, and based on the recommendation of Ghana Health Service, each meal would be accompanied with an egg.
She admitted that though there might be some constraints getting the meals to some of the schools “these were teething challenges and expressed the hope that the arrangement would be improved in the subsequent days”.
Ms Kwallah called on school heads especially, the private schools to allow access to their premises for monitoring to ensure that the right thing was done for a successful programme.
GNA