Resident students at the Commonwealth Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, on Wednesday vent their spleen on the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the university to register their disapproval to what is widely known as ‘School Feeding’ Policy to be introduced in the next academic year.

As a measure to solve feeding problem on campus, the VC, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, who had described as “faecal matter”, the food being prepared for the students in the university by various food vendors, has announced that beginning next academic year, the university will introduce ‘Meal Plans’, which will ensure that students of the university are given “decent” meals in their respective halls.

“You will eat breakfast and lunch in your halls and still pay for it at a price which is almost the same as the one you buy from the night market. You don’t need to worry about hygiene. There will be zero faecal matter”, he assured

According to the Vice-Chancellor, Level 100 students will have to sign on to the new plan, “they will select their menu, sometimes it could be a buffet. We will not force any of the continuing students to sign onto the plan, but it will be difficult for students to cook in their rooms.”

Advancing the need for the new policy, the Vice-Chancellor said research conducted by the Noguchi Memorial Institute, as well as reports of some graduate studies, showed that food eaten by the university’s students on daily basis were prepared in unhygienic conditions and pose serious health threats.

“We don’t have to wait for some of our students to die of cholera or other infections as we have seen people dying through accidents, Noguchi and some graduate students have done various tests on water used to prepare the food… and you want to know the result… it contains faecal matter,” Prof Aryeetey told a durbar of students and authorities of the two new halls named after Dr. Hilla Limann and Prof Alexander Kwapong, a former Vice-Chancellor of the university.

The durbar was dubbed: “Vice-Chancellor’s Interaction with Students”, was to educate the students on new policies and programmes being undertaken by the university.

However, Vandals (students’ resident at Commonwealth Hall) have rejected the VC’s new policy, indicating that the students were not ready for any planned meal or school feeding to be rolled out by the university authorities.

Asked how much the policy which is expected to be rolled out by September would cost, the VC could not provide answers but debunked figures which were being speculated among students.

It is not clear what the students would do to ensure that the meal plan does not see the light of day, but signals coming from the hall indicate very interesting times ahead in their bid to halt the policy.