Atiwa East Member of Parliament Abena Osei Asare has urged the government to reconsider the use of Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) allocations to finance feeding for students in senior high schools, arguing that the practice undermines the Fund’s primary mandate of supporting educational infrastructure.
Her comments came in Parliament after the Minister of Education indicated that 42% of GETFund’s allocation is currently being used to finance school feeding at the senior high school level.
While acknowledging the importance of feeding students, the former Deputy Finance Minister maintained that the arrangement diverts critical resources away from addressing the country’s growing infrastructure deficit in the education sector.
“Mr Speaker, I rise to ask the Minister a follow-up question on a statement he made that 42% of the GETFund allocation is spent on school feeding at the senior level. Mr Speaker, that is good because the students also have to be fed as they go to school,” she said.
She, however, stressed that school feeding does not fall within GETFund’s core mandate.
“But, Mr Speaker, that is not the core mandate of GETFund. GETFund’s core mandate is to help with the infrastructure of the schools,” she stated.
Drawing from her engagements with schools across the country, Ms Osei Asare said many education projects remain abandoned due to inadequate funding.
“I had the opportunity to visit the regions and also to engage the pre-tertiary schools. Mr Speaker, as we speak now, there’s outstanding uncompleted infrastructure to the tune of between GH¢8 billion and GH¢10 billion.”
She questioned how the government intended to complete stalled projects if nearly half of GETFund’s resources continued to be channelled into school feeding.
“So that if you take 42% of the allocation for this, which is not their core mandate, you ask yourself, how much do you give to them to complete the uncompleted infrastructure?”
The Atiwa East MP proposed that the government should explore alternative sources of funding for the feeding programme instead of relying on GETFund allocations.
“We can use other sources of revenue to fund this equally good programme, but not the monies that should go to GETFund for infrastructure,” she argued.
She also appealed to the majority leader and the finance minister to address the issue in the 2027 budget statement.
“So we will plead with the majority leader and the finance minister that as he brings, not the mid-year, but the 2027 budget in November, they should look at this and make sure they give GETFund enough allocation.”
According to her, adequate funding is needed both to complete existing infrastructure projects and to enable the Ministry of Education to effectively carry out its responsibilities.
“One, to address the existing uncompleted infrastructure, as well as give the Ministry of Education enough funding to enable them to do what is expected of them.”
She concluded by reiterating that although feeding students remains essential, it should not come at the expense of educational infrastructure development.
“So respectfully, I understand that the students will have to be fed, but then that is not the core mandate of GETFund. We can use other sources of revenue for that.”
She ended her remarks by asking the Minister to respond to her concerns.
Source: adomonline.com
