Some beneficiaries of the government’s Free Senior High School program are being served what some of the students describe as non-nutritious meals. In some cases, some were served without fish or any protein, Citi News gathered.
At the Kwabenya Senior High School in the Greater Accra Region for instance, where Citi News’ Caleb Kudah visited on Monday with Parliament’s select committee on Education, the students had been served Waakye without even shito.
Their food was also without gari or spaghetti as some of them expected. One of the students said, “The government is paying for the waakye. [But] there is no shito, no meat, no macaroni, not even salad, no egg.”
A member of the committee and Member of Parliament for Ketu South, Bernard Ahiafor, after a working visit to the school to assess the implementation of the Free SHS program said, “We realized that the waakye that they were being served it with has no complement in terms of egg or fish, so that goes a long way to state categorically from what I’ve seen that there is a problem with the quality of food.”
School feeding in selected public basic schools
Meanwhile, the National School Feeding Program has insisted it provides the best meals to students.
The Public Relations Officer of the school feeding secretariat, Siba Alfa told Citi News that his outfit constantly monitors the caterers to ensure that the quality of the food served to the pupils at the basic level is not compromised.
Over one million school children currently under the program, are entitled to one hot meal per day.
Free SHS: La Presby students study on cement blocks
This comes barely few days after Citi News reported that some students of the La Presby Senior High School, are studying on cement blocks due to lack of desks, under the Free SHS program.