The Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) and the Association of Bolga, Bongo, Tongo,Nangodi and Nabdam (BONABOTO) have threatened to picket at the Ministry of Finance next week over the delays of disbursement of feeding grants arrears to second cycle schools in the Upper East Region.
According to them, government’s delay in releasing feeding grants to Northern students is a deliberate ploy to impoverish the north, hence their decision to picket.
[contextly_sidebar id=”5RR7sftP52JIndOMXdi03gCyeHZaMMOp”]In an Citi News interview, spokesperson of NORPRA, Bismark Adongo said, they have resolved to picket at the Ministry of Finance until government releases feeding grants arrears to second cycle schools in the north, adding that, headteachers have to rely on students school fees to feed them.
He said, government has not responded to the concerns raised over the timely release of the grants.
“We will meet this Saturday (22nd October, 2016) with all other concern groups and strategized whether we are carrying our mattresses there, how many days to sleep, who should go and what should be the dress code. So if we resolve in the meeting that we should picket come next week Monday(24th October,2016) we will.”
Spokesperson of BONABOTA, Standly Abopam equally supports the agenda to picket for government to release the feeding grants to the affected schools.
“In the secondary schools today is that, ‘No contribution No chop’ and that is how come if your child has not paid his school fees in full or has even paid and is left with GH1.00 that child is driven home until full payment is made, because now the students have to pay for their feeding. This is why we will picket at the ministry of finance until government releases the feeding grants, even if it means we should picket at the flagstaff house we will. we think that, the action by government not to pay feeding grants is trying to ‘kill’ a whole generation of Northern Ghana.”
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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana