MORE U. EAST SCHOOLS BENEFIT FROM FEEDING PROGRAMME (PAGE 12, SEPT 8 2010)

The number of beneficiary schools under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) in the Upper East Region has increased from 18 to 64 since the National Democratic Congress assumed the reins of government.
The Upper East Regional Co-ordinator of the programme, Mr Donatus Akamugri Atanga, disclosed this in reaction to suggestions by activists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the region that the programme was collapsing.
He said the NDC was determined to increase and improve upon the programme to achieve the purpose for which it was established.
Mr Atanga challenged the NPP to come out with the figures to back their claim that not a single school had been added to the programme since the NDC came to power.
He stressed that the programme was not a novelty by the NPP for the north but had come to replace already existing feeding programmes by the Catholic Relief Services and World Food Programme and the NDC as a party was committed to see to it that it was enhanced for the benefit of all.
“The GSFP however is not a novelty in Northern Ghana for NPP to behave as if before their eight years administration, pupils had never tasted food in schools”, he said.
Explaining the expansion made to the programme in the region, Mr Akamugri said since NDC came into power in 2009, it had added 10 schools to Bolga Municipal, five to Bongo, three to Talensi-Nabdam, three to Garu-Tempane, three to Builsa, five to Kassena-Nankana East, three Kassena-Nankana West, four to Bawku West District and 10 to Bawku Municipal, adding that currently the total number of schools benefiting from the programme is 64.
Touching on the restructuring of the programme, he said school implementation committees made up of a traditional ruler, an assembly member, the girls’ and boys’ prefect, PTA chairman and the head teacher, had been formed and conscientised to take active part in the implementation of the programme and also discuss the challenges confronting the programme.
He reiterated the fact that the policy objective was to institute a feeding programme which will ensure that all pupils in schools were fed and urged those interested in scoring cheap political points to tread cautiously.