The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah, is urging the President to take immediate action to provide food for students in Senior High Schools.
“We agree with the constitution that education should be free. The president should do something about this particular issue to ensure that food provisions are made for our children in the next two to three months. As soon as possible, marching orders should be given to the Ghana Education Service to do whatever they can to provide them with food. The president should put his government in place. We cannot give any excuses.”
These concerns were raised following the growing issue of the Conference of Assisted Heads of Secondary Schools (CHASS) urging parents to provide their children with adequate food before returning to school.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Deide Tettey, Mr. Musah criticized the suggestion that students should bring their own food to school, calling it an unacceptable solution to a critical problem.
“This is an issue we have been talking about for years. This is not new. How can we tell students that when they are coming to school, they should carry food? Are we turning our children into cargo vehicles? How much food can they carry to school?” he questioned.
Mr. Musah emphasized the injustice of sending children to school hungry while parents continue to have food at home. He called for urgent action to address the issue, stating that it was time to stop the practice of starving children while they attend school.
“How can parents eat in the house and their children not eat at school? How can we send our children to school starving while we, the parents, sit back and eat? This is not only unacceptable but a deep shame. We need to do something about this issue to save all of us from the shame and embarrassment of parents eating in their homes while their children are starving at school,” he lamented.
According to Musah, this issue represents a broader failure by the state to meet its responsibilities toward children. He called it a “decisive state failure” and insisted that the government must be held accountable.
“The thing is that it is a decisive state failure, and we must hold the state accountable. The state must deliver. The law says that all matters related to the child, including their intake, shall be paramount. That is what the law says, and it is the state that propounded that particular law under the Children’s Act. The state has a responsibility to protect the interest of the child.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Deborah Amuzu
