Hungry SHS Students Breaking Into Chop-Boxes For Food

It is now becoming a story of survival of the fittest in some of the Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country, as the widely reported food shortage crisis continues to bite extremely hard.

The latest on the situation is that while the Education Ministry struggles to transport food to the various public Senior High Schools, nationwide, some hungry students have resorted to other unacceptable means by breaking into their colleagues’ chop-boxes to steal food in a desperate effort to survive.

The Education Ministry had said food supplies will reach the schools by Tuesday after the Upper West Regional Chapter of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) issued a 7-day ultimatum for the delivery to be made.

But the truck loads of food said to have been dispatched are yet to reach their destinations, as Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ministry is now claiming they had to suffer some setbacks.

However, unpleasant reports intercepted by The Anchor indicate that some students, having stayed for weeks without proper meal, are now stealing foods from their mates.

This information was divulged by an anonymous parent who told journalists his ward informed about this unfortunate development.

The unfortunate incident allegedly happened at Wesley Girls Senior High School, one of grade ‘A’ schools in Cape Coast in the Central Region.

A post making the rounds on social media read “Parents Association of Mfantsipim is making contributions just so students can be fed. Authorities of Wesley Girls are complaining [by] of a rare behavior of students. Students have resorted to breaking lockers of their colleagues in pursuit of food items”

While school authorities remain tight-lipped for fear of victimization, some parents who are deeply concerned about the situation have begun exposing the dreaded situation in these schools.

Concerned parents who can no longer look on us their wards starve, have found other means to support them.

One of such who sent a message to Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday 13, 2022, said while the authorities wait on government, his family has arranged for the services of a caterer, who cooks for their ward twice a day at a fee.

Another alleged that some of the students who vacated recently wrote their end of term exams on empty stomachs. According to one caller, he could not believe it when he first sighted his son when he came home for vacation.

A father has complained about how students are fed in these schools. According to him, his ward is being fed porridge (‘Koko’) without sugar for breakfast due to the shortage of food supplies.

The agitated parent who was speaking on the Morning Show said sometimes the students are fed just once a day.

“Our children are very hungry. They wrote the exams on empty stomachs. They give them just a ladle of ‘koko’ without bread, groundnut and sometimes no sugar,” he said on Wednesday.

Describing the situation as appalling the worried parent called on government to address the challenge as soon as possible.

“If the child, the centre of education is suffering then what kind of system are we running? We are gradually teaching these students to steal because they are hungry,” he added.

A storekeeper also alleged on Citi FM that schools are now improvising using margarines as cooking oil.

On the back of these setbacks, some parents have called for the closure of the schools.

Meanwhile, some senior high schools across the country have threatened they may be forced to shut down if the situation is immediately resolved.

The failure by the Ministry to get the food to the schools has caused further agitation amongst heads of schools across the country.

Latest to join the fray is the Eastern Regional Chapter of CHASS which has warned school in the region risk shutdown should government fail to deliver the supplies by the end of the week.

First to threaten a shutdown was the Upper West Region Conference of Heads of Assisted Schools (CHASS) last week.

The Regional CHASS disclosed in a statement following an emergency meeting held at the Queen of Peace Senior High School in Wa.

It said there are food shortages in all schools in the region, which have been caused by local suppliers’ refusal to supply food to various schools.

“It came out that the food suppliers contracted by Buffer Stock Company and those local suppliers contacted to help out are all refusing to supply due to non-payment of outstanding monies owed for food supplied to the schools. This has led to serious food shortages in all the schools in the region. In fact, an assessment of the situation indicated that most schools cannot go beyond one week if nothing urgent is done about it.”

As a result of these challenges, the Conference has decided that all schools will feed students with whatever is available in the school food stores, while students bring their own sugar to the dining hall.

Candidates writing the WASSCE will be compelled to feed themselves or come from home to write the exams.

Sporting and cultural activities at the school, District, Regional and National levels will be suspended with immediate effect until further notice.

Workshops and other activities which involve the payment of money will also be suspended, as it is becoming impossible for schools to pay for these activities.

Earlier, the Education Ministry had downplayed concerns being raised about shortages of food items in secondary schools in parts of the country.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, the PRO, Kwasi Kwarteng, said his ministry has “not had any such official complaint.”

Despite reports indicating that certain schools currently lack key ingredients like bread and oil for meals, Mr. Kwarteng also said reports about shortages could also be considered an alerts for the future.

This comes at a time four teacher unions have embarked on an indefinite strike over unpaid Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA).

Source: theanchorghana