The implementation ‘one Hot meal’ policy for Senior High Day Schools is under serious threat, as caterers demand outstanding arrears, threatening to stop feeding the students, if the government fails to pay.
“The one Hot Meal for the Day schools is a challenge now because the caterers are threatening to stop feeding the students if their arrears are not paid”, says the Conference of the Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).
According to the Conference, the feeding grants for perishable and non-perishable food items for the policy had been in arrears since June 15, 2025, and urged the government to expedite action for the release of funds to alleviate the dire situation facing the schools.
The Conference made the call in a communique issued on the sidelines of the 63rd Annual Conference of CHASS held between October 6 and October 12, 2025 in Sunyani.
It was on the theme “Ensuring comprehensive, equitable and sustainable secondary education in Ghana-the role of stakeholders”.
A copy of the communique, was jointly signed by the Reverend Father Stephen Owusu Sekyere and Mr Baro Primus, the National President and National Secretary of the CHASS respectively.
It said: The sudden reversal of the decentralized food procurement system, which allowed schools to procure their own food between January and July 2025, came as a surprise to CHASS”.
The communique indicated that” “This initiative originally promised by the President worked effectively and gave us the much-needed stability as a major step toward resolving the recurring challenges associated with the centrally supplied food”.
It however, requested the need for schools to be permitted to procure, at least the six staple grains as agreed earlier on between the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and CHASS.
That, the communique added, would ensure the timely, adequate and quality supply of food items and served as a great support to the local farmers which would ultimately stimulate rural economies.
The communique also expressed concern about the destructive impact of illegal mining on education, particularly the involvement of students at the expense of their education and the degradation of school lands.
“If unchecked, this menace can have dire consequences for the nation’s future, and we therefore join the national call for urgent and decisive action to curb this threat”, it added.
