Friday , March 29 2024

Closure of northern schools unfair – Education NGO

The General Secretary of the Northern Educational Network, Abdul Latiff Rahman is livid students in the second Senior High schools in the northern part of the country have been sent home due to government’s delay in releasing feeding grants.

He described the situation as unfair saying it is affecting education the area.

Students in all second cycle institutions in the Northern Region were  sent home to pave way for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to commence but were told not to return until their feeding grants are paid by government.

Some of the heads on condition of anonymity told Citi News government’s failure to reimburse the outstanding feeding grants for three terms necessitated the action because they were indebted to their suppliers.

“In as much as I agree that students have been sent home because BECE is ongoing, our checks indicate that the heads of the schools have told the schools that they do not have feeding grants and they should go home until further notice. It is unfair to take students through that,” Latiff Rahman added.Speaking to Richard Dela Sky on Eyewitness News, Latiff Rahman lamented that such situation is portraying a picture which suggests that “it is a pity that we [students in norther part of Ghana] go to school, as if it is a pity that we want to seek education and I think it is unfair.”

He explained that “their colleges in the private sector are likely to go back immediately after the BECE and they do not know when to go back.”

“The northern student needs equal opportunity and access to compete competitively with anybody across the world just like their counterparts do. So the issue of feeding grants shouldn’t be occurring.”

Leadership failure

He also blamed the situation leadership failure.

“It occurs every year. I don’t know why it is occurring. People may say it is the presidency, but I think it is lack of leadership on the part of the educational authority. You just need basic planning to know that at this particular time of the year, students are supposed to be in school, this is the amount of money we need to spend and you do that . but in our case we don’t get that.”

By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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