The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has warned that he may be forced to revoke the power to purchase food supplies for senior high schools from the hands of the management of schools if the quality of food and the supply schedule do not improve.

He said even though he had implemented the NDC’s manifesto promise to put senior high school heads in charge of food purchase arrangements, the quality of foods being supplied by some heads of second cycle schools, as well as the supply schedule of those foodstuffs, was not encouraging.

Mr Iddrisu said this at the inauguration of the Governing Council of the GES in Accra last Friday.

Mr Iddrisu said he and the President's attention had been drawn to the quality of the supplies by the heads of schools and their distribution.

He stated that the President was not enthused about what was being done.

"I expect that internal audit together with national will strengthen the policing of the food and once in a while,  the Director General of the GES and Professor Avoke can go on unannounced visits to the schools at a time that they are having their meals to appreciate the food that is being served.

“So I caution the headmasters to improve on the food," Mr Iddrisu stated.

The 12-member council has Prof. Mawutor Avoke as the Chairman with the members being a representative each from WAEC, Dr Rosemond Wilson; the National Schools Inspectorate Authority, Prof.  Azeko Tahiru Salifu; the National Teaching Council, Adam Adu Marshall; the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Prof. Yayra Dzakadzie, and a representative of the teacher associations, Right Reverend Paa Solomon Grant-Essilfie.

The rest are representatives of the MOE, Mamle D. Andrews; the Local Government Service Council, Felicia Dapaah Agyeman-Boakye; Non-Teaching Staff of GES, Adamu Bintu Fati, a female educationist, Florence Bobi, and the Director General of the GES, Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis.  

The minister administered the oaths of office and secrecy to them. 

WAEC Calendar

Mr Iddrisu during the inauguration called on the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to let its calendar be in sync with the other West African countries of WAEC.

Congratulating the governing council on behalf of the President, the Education Minister said the government's intention to invest in the foundations of education in the country right from infrastructure to teacher development, to ensure that every Ghanaian child, regardless of background, gained access to quality basic education.

Response

Responding to the minister's concerns, Prof. Avoke pledged that the council would work together to ensure that the food situation in the schools got better, even though they had been made to understand that significant strides had been made in that direction.

He pledged, among others, the new council's preparedness to work towards achieving the objectives of the free compulsory educational policy, adding that it was incumbent on the new council to ensure the policy was implemented in its totality.