The Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA) has appealed to the National Secretariat of the Ghana School Feeding Programme to be fair to the three regions in the north and other poor communities in its selection of schools for the programme. This is contained in a statement signed and issued by the President of NORPRA, Bismarck Ayorogo at Bolgatanga.
He said the programme initiated by the UN and NEPAD is aimed at helping Ghana attain the Millennium Development Goals, especially eradicating poverty and hunger. It is therefore sad that the National Secretariat is using the programme to frustrate, and discriminate against the poorest segment of the society particularly the three regions in the north.
According to the statement it is on record that some areas in the country known to have incidence of poverty of 10% have about 100 of their schools being selected for the programme, whilst the entire three regions in the north with an average poverty level of 70% has only 80 schools selected.
It said the National Secretariat of the programme has since 2005 adopted and applied the equal distribution formula. Which started with one school per region and later extended to one school per district in 2006. The statement pointed out that as at December 2007, the total number of schools benefiting from the programme stood at 975.
It said continuous application of the adopted formula would have been allocating seven schools to each of the 138 districts in the country and that would have undoubtedly covered 168 schools in the three regions in the north. The statement therefore called on the National Secretariat of the GSFP to demonstrate fairness and transparency by applying to all, the particular formula that gave a single metropolis one hundred schools.
