Parents shirk their responsibility over school feeding

Some parents are said to be running away from their responsibilities of providing meals for their wards with the believe that the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has been introduced in their community.

This, according to some teachers Daily Express spoke to in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, is having dire consequences on learning as the affected pupils do not usually concentrate in class.

With the assumption that their wards will get good meals in school, pupils are said to be served foods with questionable qualities.

Accordingly, to reports gathered from one of the schools, Dorkploame D/A Primary School, the nutritional value of meals served the pupils is below standards and could be dangerous to their growth.

Country Director for Pencils of Promise during the inauguration of a six-unit classroom block for the school in Dorkploame, expressed concern over how some parents shirked their responsibility knowing their children will be fed at school.

“Another area of concern is feeding. We also realised talking to some of the kids that parents do not give them food because they claim that government will provide them food at the school level so the kids come on empty stomach with the assumption that they will be provided with a hot meal, nutritious food at the school level but we realised there is a problem with the quality of the food being provided in some of the schools,” Mr. Gobah told Daily Express in an separate interview.

The GSFP is a social intervention by government to help boost enrollment in public basic schools and the nutritional needs of basic school children.

The policy is meant to provide one nutritious meal each school day for all infant and primary school children from 4 -12 years.

But one of the greatest challenges to the policy is whether the meals indeed have the needed nutrition.

The unattractive nature of the foods is much to be desired as they are usually mind-boggling.

“Sometimes you cannot even call what is being given the kids food. Sometimes you ask the cooks and they say that’s what’s provided to them to be given to the kids,” Mr. Freeman Gobah added.

The NGO which is mainly into the building of classroom blocks for needy schools is worried that is can greatly affect learning as the pupils may be lacking the needed nutrition. It fears will defeat their aim of getting good results from the pupils.

The Country Director of PoP, therefore, placed a distress call to authorities to look into this matter and reverse the situation.

“So we just want to appeal to the managers of the programme to improve on monitoring at the school level and at the district level so that we can be sure that what is being given our kids is quality and nutritious.”

Mr. Freeman Gobah also blamed some parents for over-depending on the government on issues as this.

“Throughout our work in rural communities we worked in, we have realized that there is a bit of shirking of responsibility on the part of parents. Some parents are not able to provide a uniform for their kids; some are very genuine, some because the government wants to provide they do not want to support.”

When Daily Express randomly interviewed some pupils, it was revealed that some go to school without eating from home whereas others are given between 20 to 50 pesewas.

Meanwhile, the South Tongu District Assembly says it will initiate an investigation into the development and correct it.

The Assembly which made this known through the MP, Mr. Kwabena Woyome in an interview with Daily Express said it’s unfortunate and must not be left unattended to.

“I want to believe it is a fact. It’s challenge to the committee set up at the Assembly oversee this activity to ensure that what is being reported is investigated. I wouldn’t be happy to see someone being served substandard food that do not have all the necessary nutrients for the kids growing. We need those vitamins for the kids to help them acquire the necessary knowledge.”

“It’s a very disturbing news and I am going take up to the District Assembly and the committee especially the planning officer to really investigate this,” the law maker assured.

Attempts to get the first-hand information from the Assembly proved futile.

The South Tongu District Coordinating Director, Mrs Jemima Afedo failed to respond to any enquiries as no one apart from District Chief Executive is allowed to speak to the media.

South Tongu currently do not have a chief executive as the nominee, Emmanuel Louis Agama is yet to be approved after he was rejected once.

Classroom blocks and E-readers

In Another development, Pencils of Promise has replaced two dilapidated buildings with a state of the art classrooms in two rural schools; Agorhome RC and Dorkploame D/A Primary schools in the South Tongu District.

The six unit block per school comes with modern items as furniture and sanitation facilities. So far, it has successfully cleared 114 schools under trees with 16 others nearing completion.

The NGO is also making strides in selected rural schools in 20 districts of the Volta region where more than 3000 E-readers have been distributed to pupils from primary three to six.

These electronic readers are pre loaded with more than 100 books including the Ghana Education Service's approved text books.