More to benefit from school feeding

Front Page
15-07-08

THE number of pupils benefiting from the Ghana School Feeding Programme is to be increased from the current 477,714 to more than one million in the next two years.
It is expected that about 560,000 pupils from 1,556 schools will benefit from the programme by the end of this year, while the figure is expected to rise to 800,000 in 2,222 schools in 2009.
“These are the projections and if we are able the get extra funds, the targets will be exceeded,” the National Co-ordinator of the GSFP, Mr Michael Nsowah, told the Daily Graphic in Accra.
He said the programme, among other things, aimed at increasing school enrolment, attendance and retention, as well as reducing short-term hunger and malnutrition among pre-school and primary schoolchildren.
He said the secretariat of the programme had submitted proposals to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment for an upward adjustment in the feeding fee per pupil.
Mr Nsowah noted that the cooks under the programme had made requests for the current 30Gp per pupil per day to be increased in view of the cost of food prices.
He said the basic concept of the programme was to provide children in public primary schools and kindergartens with one nutritious meal, prepared from locally grown foodstuffs, on every schoolday.
He had earlier indicated to the Daily Graphic that existing structures within the GSFP were to be strengthened, with the active involvement of district assemblies, to ensure its success.
Mr Nsowah described the future of the programme as “very bright” and indicated that enrolment was increasing to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of putting every child in school by 2015.
The former acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), therefore, called for public support to enable the programme to achieve its objectives.