I Am Against Cancelling School Feeding - Edu. Minister Responds To Assibey Yeboah

The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has rejected calls from his party folks to the government for consideration and review of the school feeding programme among others in the wake of the economic crisis the country is plunged into to save its financial burden, Purefmonline.com reports.

Parliament’s former Finance Committee Chair, Mark Assibey-Yeboah in an interview with Accra-based CiTi TV asked President Akufo-Addo to plan to make hard trims to significant social strategies to get the economy in the groove again.

He said the Free Senior High School programme (FSHS), the School Feeding Program, and the Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) are regions the public authorities could make reserve funds for and must consider reviewing. He called for a complete scrap of the school feeding program.

But in a response to Kumasi-based Pure FM’s ‘Pure Morning Drive’ on July 7, the Minister of Education asked Ghanaians to reject the appeal as it is not in the best interest of the pupils.

“We have something generally called stunting, research shows that feeding children in school helps eliminate this stunting in the growth of a kid.

Many countries that do the school feeding like we do has a focused goal of helping children from impoverished backgrounds have some level of nutritious growth so as to aid their sense of learning".

"What we need to do as a people is to strengthen the school feeding program and not scrap it. Sometimes, it is only the source of food for some pupils so we shouldn’t be clamoring for its scrap but rather a restrengthening of it.

The school feeding is very relevant. It helps our pupils to study better and I believe many shares in this view. We shouldn’t entertain the calls for its cancellation. As the Minister of Education, I am against the call for its cancellation.” Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum told Kwame Adjei Bohyen.