Folks, see below intercepted contents of the COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY CHASS, AT THE END OF ITS 60TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE/ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, HELD AT THE KOFORIDUA CENTRE FOR NATIONAL CULTURE IN THE EASTERN REGION.
It’s not pretty, the review of fSHS is long overdue.
Parents must call out NADAA/NPP for paying lip service to fSHS. The issues the MOE/GES have sort to deny are not only affirmed by CHASS but have been matters the government has failed to address as captured in various communique issued by CHASS. See intercepted contents below:
CHASS notes with concern that, we do not get most of our concerns addressed adequately over the years. Indeed, most of the issues captured in this communique and the resolutions are age-long problems associated with the FSHS policy since its inception.
CHASS further notes that these issues had been raised in its previous communique with little attention paid to them. CHASS is very much convinced that the issues raised if heeded, would resolve most of the avoidable problems bedevilling the smooth implementation of the FSHS policy, an otherwise excellent policy. We are therefore compelled to repeat and reiterate the grey areas of the implementation of the policy for government and management to address.
CHASS, therefore, request and proposes the following:
* Government should consider the issue of Cost Sharing theory. It has become abundantly clear that government alone cannot totally foot the cost of education. Government must therefore offset some of the cost to parents/guardians. CHASS recommends that the components to offset to parents must include and not necessarily limited to the feeding of students.
* The role of the National Buffer Stock Company in the supply of food to schools itself is problematic in the smooth implementation of the FSHS policy. CHASS recommends therefore that, the Buffer Stock system, considering all the attendant problems associated with its role in the supply of food to schools must be scrapped immediately and FSHS Secretariat should re-channel those funds directly to the schools to perform those roles. This would reduce the extra stress of Heads struggling to even appeal to suppliers to supply food on behalf of the Buffer Stock Company, looking for non-existent funds to travel over various distances to cart food to our schools, dealing with undersupplies and underweight supplies, over-invoicing, and even intimidation by some suppliers. Mention must be made of the fact that there are times some schools are denied their food items when the Heads insist on the right thing.
* To curtail the challenge of inadequate and poor quality furniture in almost all schools, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) should allow schools to procure the furniture and some other basic materials like marker boards and the like from their immediate environment/local suppliers and submit the relevant documents to the FSHS Secretariat for payment to the suppliers. Since the inception of the FSHS policy, procurement of these items has been centralized. CHASS also believes that this would curtail the overpriced and poor quality of these items supplied from very far and sometimes from outside the country.
* In the current arrangement where emergency food supplies are now the order of the day, the following issues must be flagged, noted and heeded; -Quantities of emergency items should always be made available to Heads.
Buffer stock should desist with immediate effect from requesting schools to travel various distances for food items. It is having a serious toll on our already meagre resources some schools don’t even have vehicles to go and cart these items. Same for even some bulk supplies.
* The MOE/GES should hasten the process of transiting all schools from the current semester system back to the traditional trimester system since the current system puts a lot of stress on school facilities and infrastructure as well as staff and students. This should take place at the inception of the 2023 academic year.
*GES should immediately make available to schools the revised quantities of food for schools to avoid the usual confrontations between Heads and their matrons.
*CHASS wants to reiterate and restate its request to the MOE and GES to always ensure the timeous and adequate releases of funds; not only the money for perishables but also the money for recurrent expenditure to schools to enable them, not just to function, but to function effectively. It must be noted that the problems in our schools are not problems that should wait. The recurrent component of the fees caters for the very key areas of managing the school such as the National Science and Maths Competition, sports and culture, sanitation, library, ICT, stationery, minor repairs, vehicle maintenance etc. Clearly, the non-release of these monies over the past year has seriously constrained the ability of Heads to manage the schools.
* CHASS again calls on the government to seriously consider the timely and adequate release of funds to Day Schools. Their only source of government funding is only one source i.e. the money for recurrent expenditure and any delay in their releases renders them very incapable of moving on. Indeed, Heads of Day Schools see their situation as punishment, compared to their counterparts in the Boarding Schools.
* CHASS is again calling on the government to take immediate steps to pay all arrears in respect of money for perishables and recurrent fees owed to schools.
* Some schools are having challenges with electricity payments because they are connected with prepaid meters. With the delay, erratic and non-release of funds to schools, such schools go through untold hardship and disconnections. CHASS, therefore, requests the government to immediately take steps to make sure that all schools revert to the use of postpaid meters instead of pre-paid meters so as to relieve Heads of the headache of settling electricity bills.
* The GES should as a matter of urgency make available the Code of Conduct for Students before the commencement of the 2023 academic year. CHASS is of the view that this issue has been delayed unduly.
* The PTAs are still not active in our schools. Government must come out with clear-cut directives on the activities of the PTAs to enable the PTAs to function effectively in all schools. This will also save Heads the unfortunate queries and sanctions applied to them in their dealing with PTAs in their schools and the fact that many PTAs are now very dormant due to the unclear, unwritten moratorium placed on their activities since the inception of the FSHS policy. This emanates from the fact that the contributions and impact of PTAs in the development and smooth running of schools cannot be underestimated, overemphasized or swept under the carpet.
* CHASS request an upward review of the WASSCE Practical fees to GHC 50.00 per student per subject or handover completely the entire process to a relevant body. The current situation where schools are indirectly made to bear the cost of WASSCE practicals because of woefully inadequate releases is unacceptable.
* Since the implementation of the FSHS, some absorbed fees have never been released to schools thereby creating some serious financial management constraints for Heads in those respects. Particular mention must be made of fees in respect of maintenance, library, ICT, ID Cards. CHASS wonders what the MOE/GES has been using these monies for, over the years while the schools are in dire need of these monies.
* CHASS is calling on the government to relook at the incentives (motivation) packages paid to staff of schools which have seized coming in the past two years now. This forms part of the absorbed fees.
* The MOE and FSHS for that matter, have been reviewing the prices of the mercantile items upward which it gives to the National Buffer Stock Company to supply. Sadly, for more than three years, despite the constant appeal by CHASS to the MOE to do the same for the perishable fees released to schools, nothing has been done in that respect, though the country has experienced soaring prices of food items and perishables in recent times. CHASS calls on the MOE to do the needful through an engagement with all relevant bodies immediately, as the perishable fee paid to schools is no more sustainable. Currently, only GH₡1.56 per student per day for all the meals. This amount cannot even buy an egg or a ball of kenkey. CHASS respectively request for an upward review to an amount of GH₡5.00. Additionally, perishables coming to the schools should be sent directly to schools without sending them through so many transmission points.
* CHASS calls on all parents to live up to their parental responsibilities. The government’s implementation of FSHS policy should not be perceived as a substitution for parental responsibilities. Some parents have completely abandoned their responsibilities towards their wards and this must cease. We restate that governments everywhere and at any point in time cannot single-handedly bear the full cost of education. CHASS, therefore, calls on parents to live up to their parental responsibilities.
Folks, the contents of the COMMUNIQUE by CHASS shared with you are clear. A review of the fSHS policy aimed at addressing the implementation problems is a must. I call on parents and Ghanaians, in general, to demand action in this regard. NADAA should instruct the Minister for Education to initiate the national conversation on fSHS now!
In Solidarity,
Dr. Clement Abas Apaak
M.P, Builsa South and Deputy Ranking Member On Education Committee of Parliament