Deputy Minister for Education, Reverend John Ntim Forjour
The Education Ministry says there is no food shortage in Senior High Schools (SHS’s) across the country.
According to the Deputy Minister for Education, Reverend John Ntim Forjour, speculations being peddled around that there was food shortage in certain SHS’s were unfortunate and an attempt to create a negative impression against the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo flagship programme which had been accepted by the nation and the rest of the world.
The Deputy Minister made the denial on Monday to the media after an unannounced visit to some selected SHSs in the Greater Accra region.
Some of the schools visited by the Deputy Minister were O’ Reilly SHS, Tema SHS and Achimota SHS.
The visit was aimed at ascertaining the fact about speculations by a section of the media that some SHS had run short of food.
Again, the visit was also used to wish candidates writing the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) well and encourage them to work hard to get the best results at the end of the examinations.
Background
The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Thomas Musah in 2018 granted an interview on TV3 where he complained about the shortage of food in some SHSs in the country then.
Three years after the interview, the said video keeps popping up and creating the impression that there is food shortage in the schools.
Denial
When the Education Ministry called the General Secretary of GNAT to pinpoint the specific schools for a follow-up, he denied granting such an interview again and expressed surprise at the video and admitted that the circulating video was an old tape.
He was upbeat that with the current response measures put in place by the Ministry, the issue of food shortage had not been a challenge again.
In a related development, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, last Thursday evening embarked on a surprise visit to the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School (PRESEC) Legon to interact with the students and staff.
It was fun seeing the Education Minister spend time with first-year students of the school during prep.
The visit gave the Minister the opportunity to assess how their evening studies were organized as he had the opportunity to teach mathematics in one of the classrooms.