Mr John Kofi Donyina, the Techiman South Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) has
warned that, the contracts of caterers who failed to meet the
required standard of the Ghana School Feeding Programme
(GSFP) would be terminated.
He said the GSFP as part of the government’s pro-poor
intervention programmes aimed at improving attendance
and retention of pupils in basic schools located in deprived
communities and any caterer whose services fell below
expectation implied working against the realisation of the
set goals.
Mr Donyina gave the warning in Techiman in the Bono East
Region when he was speaking at a meeting organised by the
Women’s Integrated Development Organisation (WIDO) to inform the public about the findings of a research project on
the GSFP it recently carried out at schools in selected
communities in the Techiman Municipality.
The GSFP was again designed to ensure upsurge in
domestic food production and consumption and to increase
incomes of poor rural communities in response to the first
and second Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on
eradicating extreme poverty.
The meeting, attended by traditional rulers, head teachers,
caterers, cooks and staff of the Municipal Assembly was
also to identify the concerns of parents, pupils and the
general public on the GSFP to see the best way forward for
better quality service delivery to pupils.
WIDO is a local non-governmental organisation that works
towards the elimination of social and economic inequalities
experienced by women in the rural areas.
Mr. Donyina urged head teachers to cooperate with the
caterers for the continuous and smooth implementation of
the Programme to ensure that well-prepared balanced diets
were served to nourish and stimulate proper cognitive
development of the pupils to enhance learning.
The MCE said that could be achieved if the head teachers
and the Programme Coordinators were more active to do
proper monitoring and effective supervision for “the best
food in terms of quality and quantity to be served to benefit
the pupils”.
Mr David Bagonluri Paapa, the Chief Executive Officer of
WIDO said teachers who participated in the project testified
that the Programme had significantly influenced
enrolment and retention of pupils and consequently
effectiveness of teaching and learning had been enhanced.