Ghana School Feeding Programme, stakeholders to improve programme
The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has sensitized some stakeholders of the programme in the Northern Region toward improving the quality of their services.
Madam Olivia Hawa Yahaya, Northern Regional Coordinator of the GSFP, said the programme suffering from poor quality food because of lack of supervision, conflict between caterers and school managers and among others issues, adding that, the sensitization was to address some of these problems.
The workshop, which was organised in Tamale, on Saturday, brought together participants from all the districts in the region.
They included caterers, finance officers, school management committees and District Chief Executives (DCEs).
Madam Yahaya said the entire region had only 125 schools out of 1,913 kindergarten and primary schools benefiting from the programme. The figure represents 6.5 per cent coverage of the schools in the region.
“This, as you will all bear with me, cannot satisfy the aspirations of the MDGs,” she complained.
She said efforts were being made by the government to cover as many schools as possible, adding that, a committee was working on the possibility of expanding the programme by February 2011.
Madam Yahaya reminded the stakeholders that the Ghana School Feeding Programme was not a permanent employment but a contract between the caterer and the programme to provide certain services to pupils.
She urged the caterers, cooks and the school management teams to work collaboratively and effectively in order not to impede the realization of the project’s objectives.
Mr. Issah Abba, DCE for Chereponi, lauded the initiative of the programme, which had increased school enrolment.
The government’s social democratic principles are making it to continue all the good programmes of the previous administration.
He, however, called for a legal backing for the GSFP in order to prevent any government from interfering in the running of the programme saying, “This is the only way the full realization of the objectives of the programme would be achieved.”
Source: GNA