Senior high schools in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions which were uncertain about reopening following the non-payment of feeding grant arrears by government for three terms, reopened today April 18, following assurances by the National Scholarship Secretariat to release the arrears by end of this week.
The Upper East Regional Director of Education, Janet Kawia, had earlier told Citi News that the indebtedness of the schools to their suppliers is so huge that they are not willing to supply them, hence the uncertainties as to when they will reopen.
[contextly_sidebar id=”fxieHwzlhx4zQFFfLvd8duG8XrqcMWhY”]But Janet Kawia has told Citi News, government’s assurance to pay the arrears to the senior high schools by end of week has necessitated their decision to re-open today.
“Earlier, we were not sure senior high schools in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions will reopen but fortunately the registrar of the National Scholarship secretariat called the chairpersons of Conference of Assisted Senior Schools(CHASS) in the three regions of the North and informed them that, it is possible for them to reopen on the 18th April, while they wait for the feeding grants to be paid within the week.”
Madam Kawia added that, the schools will demand of all students who owe schools fees to pay their fees in order to aid their feeding till they receive grants from government.
“We tried to go into it to see how we were going to feed the students until the end of the week and the reasons given were that, they expect that those who owe the school will come back with monies to pay and they will be managing with that until the feeding grants come.”
“…But this can only be done for one week because they cannot go beyond that and we hope that the National Scholarship secretariat will also not disappoint us so that the children will remain in school and they wouldn’t be sent back home for them to wait for payments to be made before they come again,” Kawia stated.
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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana