UPPER EAST 2ND CYCLE SCHOOLS TO RE-OPEN (PAGE 3)

SECOND cycle schools in the Upper East Region which remain closed as a result of the delay in the release of feeding grants for the 2007/2008 academic year will reopen on Monday, June 2, 2008.
The Upper East Regional Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools, (CHASS), Mr Patrick Tangonyire, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic at Navrongo, said the reopening of the schools followed the receipt of the cheques for the grants.
Mr Tangonyire, who is also the Headmaster of Navrongo Senior High School (SHS), told the Daily Graphic that the cheques were collected in Accra on Thursday, May 29, 2008 by his accountant and paid into the schools’ accounts immediately.
Subsequent to that, Mr Tangonyire, who will not speak further on the issue, said notices had been dispatched to all heads of SHSs throughout the region to reopen on Monday, June 2, 2008.
The failure of the National Scholarship Secretariat to release feeding grants of students in the second cycle schools in the three northern regions has resulted in the indefinite postponement of the reopening of the third term of SHSs in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions.
First and second year students who were to report to their respective schools on April 27, 2008 for the third term are still at home waiting for official reopening of their schools.
It will be recalled that the Daily Graphic, in its Thursday, May 29, 2008 edition, reported that the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Professor Dominic Fobih, had told Parliament last Wednesday that only last week, a cheque for GH¢1.7 million was issued, but wondered why the heads of second cycle schools in those areas had refused to reopen the schools.
Professor Fobih was reacting to a statement made on the floor of the House by the Minority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, on the cumulative effect of the disruption of the academic calendar of SHSs in the three northern regions.
According to the story, the government had so far released GH¢4,255,149.92, out of the GH¢7,344,413.92 to be paid as feeding grant for second cycle schools in the three northern regions for the 2007/08 academic year.
It quoted the minister as saying efforts were being made to pay the balance of GH¢3,079.264 to enable the schools to pay their creditors.
Responding to a question as to whether the delay would affect the academic calendar of the schools, Mr Tangonyire explained that the students would stay in school for the entire term and so that the delay would not adversely affect their academic work.
“They are supposed to vacate in July, but when they (students) come, the academic calendar will be adjusted and shifted forward to August to make up for the lost time. Again, I have appealed to my staff to go the extra mile to make up for the lost period,” he said.