GES, CHASS in deadlock

June 23, 2009
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THE Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) have, for the second consecutive time, failed to agree on a new feeding fee for senior high schools.
A meeting held last Thursday to negotiate and arrive at a consensus on the feeding fee to take effect from the 2009-2010 academic year ended in deadlock, after a similar meeting had ended in a stalemate on June 3, 2009.
The CHASS is asking for the feeding fee to be reviewed upwards from the current 80Gp to GH¢1.20 in view of the increasing cost of foodstuffs. However, the GES presented GH¢1 during the two meetings which the heads of schools described as inadequate.
The 80Gp is used to feed students three times a day.
“At the meeting last Thursday, representatives of the GES and the ministry said the government was ready to pay GH¢1. We, however, disagreed, insisting on GH¢1.20, despite our previous stand of GH¢1.50. We also told them that the feeding fee did not go into only feeding the students but also the purchase of gas, among other things,” a source close to CHASS said.
It said the representatives of the GES and the ministry then promised to get back to the sector minister to convey the position of CHASS to him when he returned from the Commonwealth Education Ministers meeting.
The source said the GES was given up to mid July to come up with its position so that the new fee would be factored into students’ bills for the 2009-2010 academic year which would commence in September.
When contacted, the Director of the Basic and Secondary Education Division of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, confirmed that the position of CHASS would be communicated to the minister.
He said the negotiation was still ongoing and expressed the hope that it would end early so that the new fee could be captured in students’ bills.
“We had fruitful discussions from both sides and we are still negotiating,” he said, adding that the GES wanted to be more strategic, since the increase did not affect only the government but parents as well.
Mr Adu said CHASS had been asked to use the scientific approach to see what the GH¢1 and the GH¢1.20 could provide.