The government says it has released over GHS67 million to public Colleges of Education across the country to cater to the feeding of trainees.
This comes after the Principals of the various Colleges of Education announced that students would be fed twice instead of the three square meals a day due to the delay in the payment of six-month feeding arrears by the government.
The Principals had also indicated that the trainees were going to start feeding themselves from May 8, 2022, if the government did not release funds for feeding.
Addressing the matter, the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, disclosed that the government through the Finance Ministry has acted swiftly by releasing GHC67,942,662 to principals of the various Public Colleges of Education to salvage the situation.
“I know you may have heard the media reports, many calling on us to hear the plight of PRINCOF, the government has intervened by releasing GHC67,942,662 to all Colleges of EDUCATION.”
It is however not clear whether the amount released by the government is sufficient to clear all the debt to pave the way for suppliers to supply food to the schools.
In a statement, PRINCOF said, “suppliers have backed their threats of not supplying any food items to Colleges with concrete action by not supplying Colleges with any food items until they have been paid monies owed them.”
They however outlined some measures to ensure the smooth run of the academic year.
- Trainee teachers will be provided with two meals, breakfast and supper only, for one week, from April 23 to April 30, 2022.
- Trainee teachers from May 1 to May 8, 2022, shall be given lunch only.
- After May 8, trainee teachers would be asked to provide their own meals until their feeding allowances are paid.
- Food vendors are being encouraged to increase the quantity of daily meals they cook for sale to students.
The students were very unhappy with this directive and a new arrangement, asking that, if the principals are issuing this directive because they do have not received monies from the government, then, where do they expect us to get money from to feed ourselves? But before they could plan a possible retaliation, the government intervened.
