The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, has warned that inaccurate school enrolment figures could undermine the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), leaving some children with inadequate meals while resources are allocated to pupils who may not be present.

She said accurate and verifiable data was essential to ensuring that resources under the programme reached the children they were intended to serve, particularly as more than 4.5 million children benefit from the initiative every school day.

Dr Lartey made the remarks at a sensitisation workshop for Regional and District Education Directors from the Ashanti and Western North regions in Kumasi. The engagement focused on strengthening collaboration, data management and monitoring to improve the delivery of the programme.

According to the Minister, unreliable enrolment figures could lead to the misallocation of food and other resources, with schools recording higher actual enrolment potentially receiving less than they need.

She therefore urged headteachers, class teachers and education authorities to work together to ensure that figures submitted for school feeding are based on reliable school records and properly verified.

“The objective is not to assign blame, but to establish a reliable system that ensures every child enrolled in the programme receives the intended meal,” she stressed.

Dr Lartey also pointed to increased government investment in the programme, noting that the feeding grant had been raised from GH¢1.50 to GH¢2 per child per day.

She said efforts had also been made to improve the nutritional quality of meals served to pupils, including the training of 20,171 caterers and head cooks in practical nutrition standards.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the workshop, the Minister reiterated that reliable data would be crucial to plans to expand the programme.

She explained that accurate enrollment figures would enable the government to determine the resources required and ensure that any expansion was backed by adequate funding and supplies.

Dr Lartey further called for stronger collaboration between the Ghana School Feeding Programme Secretariat and the Ghana Education Service, particularly at the school and district levels, to improve monitoring, reporting and accountability.

She maintained that effective data management and cooperation among education authorities were necessary to ensure that the programme's resources were properly allocated and that eligible pupils received their meals.

EA