Introduction
Heads of Senior High Schools (SHS) and Institutional Suppliers in Ghana have been crying to the Minister of Education, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, Hon. Yaw Osei Adutwum, to effect payment of arrears owed them since 2021.
Recently, the association of Institutional Suppliers wanted to picket at the Ministry of Education. Information gathered indicates that the Chief of Staff, Hon. Akosua Frema Opare arranged a meeting with them. When the picketing was suspended, the Chief of Staff, we learned, failed to meet them.
Schools reopened for the 2024/25 academic year, but the SHSs have not been supplied with the full complement of the food items needed to feed students. Food served to students in the last couple of years has deteriorated both in quantity and quality, putting a great burden on parents to provide their wards with food every weekend.
In spite of this, the Minister of Education has thought it expedient to award contracts to party apparatchiks to procure free SHS branded house dresses from China for supply to students as part of the NPP’s strategy of wooing the students to vote for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on December 7.
So far, some schools in the Central and Greater Accra Regions have taken delivery of the branded house dresses. If this is not insanity, one wonders what it is.
*Callousness of the Minister*
The free SHS is the last straw that the Akufo Addo/Bawumia government and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are clinging to save them in the upcoming elections on December 7.
Any reasonable person in Ghana would, therefore, naturally expect that the Akufo Addo/Bawumia government and its Ministry of Education under the supervision of Hon. Yaw Osei Adutwum would nurture this baby called the free SHS, which they inherited from H. E. John Dramani Mahama.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Poor prioritisation of expenditure, both at the level of the government and the Ministry of Education, has deprived the free SHS implementation of the needed resources to function effectively.
The ghost of the Ghc68 million used for procuring past examination questions under the sole source procurement for candidates of the Ghana version of the WASSCE still lingers on.
We have heard about some 22,000 bags of unwholesome rice supplied to the Senior High Schools by the Buffer Stock Company under its Board Chairman, Henry Nana Boakye, the NPP National Organiser, and its CEO Hanam Abdul-Wahab, who is also contesting as the NPP parliamentary candidate for Pusiga constituency in the Upper East region.
Association of Institutional Supplies whose members supplied school uniforms, P. E. kits, and house dresses to students under the free SHS policy are also owed many years of arrears for items supplied.
Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has been demanding for arrears owed to its members since 2021 for perishable items.
CHASS in a letter dated 20th September 2024 reminded the Minister of Education, Hon. Yaw Osei Adutwum, of the urgency to release outstanding payments for recurrent fees owed the schools since the 2021 academic year and refund money they spent in carting food items from Regional Zonal food centres.
Another letter from CHASS dated 13th November 2024 again called on the Minister to pay the schools what is due them. Schools reopened for the 2024/2025 academic year, but certain food items have not been supplied to schools to enable them to feed students properly.
CHASS noted that the failure to supply these food items and pay the arrears owed them is putting the Heads in very uncomfortable situations. CHASS issued another SOS letter to the Minister of Education, decrying his inertia on its concerns.
In the midst of these dire situations faced by Institutional Supplies, Heads of School and students, it is nonsensical, callous, and even wicked on the part of Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, to contract people to supply free SHS branded house dresses to Headmasters and Headmistresses for distribution to students.
Students are normally supplied two house dresses customised for each school. But the Ministry issued orders to the Institutional Supplies to supply only one house dress to SHS1 students with the intention to supply the schools with free SHS branded house dresses.
Our intelligence picked information that so far, the free SHS branded house dresses have been supplied to schools in the Greater Accra and Central Regions.
Information gathered indicates that some other suppliers awarded the contracts are currently in China to bring more consignments of the free SHS branded fabric to be sewed for students as the second house dress. Our team has intercepted the distribution list of the first batch of thirty-five schools in the Central Region bearing the approval signature of Mr. Emmanuel Essuman, the Regional Director of Education, and Mr. Patrick Awotwe, Regional Supply Officer.
Schools on the endorsed list include Abakrampa Senior High School, Holy Child School, Ghana National College, and Wesley Girls High School. Conspicuously missing on the list are Mfantsipim School and St Augustine’s College. The total number of students on the list is 22,571, comprising 13,004 boys and 9,567 girls.
What is yet to be established is whether CHASS knew and approved of the procurement of this free SHS house dress meant for a campaign by the NPP among the SHS students or not. Our team has not come across any letter from the Ministry of Education supplying these dresses to the Headmasters and Headmistresses. Will CHASS accept this wastage of supply to their schools while money due them and food items needed to feed students are in arrears?
I humbly submit to CHASS to reject and return these dresses to the Ministry. This will send a strong signal to the Minister that it’s about time he set his priority right.
The longer CHASS accommodates this tempestuous ire within their ranks, the weaker shall it remain. Speak out, CHASS.
CHASS cannot go to war with troops that are in a state of schisms and chasms and expect victory. If the truth must kill someone, let them die. We live in a world where the intelligent must keep quiet so that the stupid will not be offended.
CHASS must stop being worriers and start being warriors. After all, whoever left you in the forest has no right to know what the wolves did to you. Should CHASS do otherwise and accept this free SHS branded house dress, they should forever keep their mouths shut on the food items and money owed them by the Ministry.
