Following government’s decision to provide one hot meal a day for all the 584,000 final year JHS students in private and public schools as well as their 146,000 teachers from August 24, 2020, to September 18, 2020, President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Dr. Damascus Tuurosung has welcomed the move saying it is timely.
He, however, believes the challenges being faced by teachers and staff in this COVID era are overwhelming adding that such intervention should not necessarily be blown out of proportion.
President Nana Akufo-Addo in his 15th address to the nation said the provision of one hot meal a day to all final year Junior High School (JHS) students comes after it was reported that some final year students had been “going hungry in complying with the Covid-19 protocols”.
But GNAPS President, Dr. Damascus Tuurosung says it is heartwarming news but cannot solve the many problems.
“Considering the number of challenges that we’re having to deal with this period. Challenges to deal with our teachers who have been home all these while without any form of remuneration for them, challenges to deal with students themselves who have returned to schools and we are battling to cater for salaries for our staff and get education materials to teach them.”
“It’s not as if we don’t appreciate what government is doing, we appreciate it; however, I’m calling it a drop in the ocean of challenges because there are so overwhelming so many challenges that an intervention of this nature should not send us into celebration as if all our issues have been dealt with.”
Dr. Tuurosung emphasised the need for government not to centralise the feeding but give each school its own allocation.
