Educationist and Policy Analyst , Nii Armah Addy has called on government to allocate more resources to sustain pro-poor policies which exist in the country’s education sector to maximize benefits for the target population.
The call comes on the back of recent challenges bedevilling the smooth running of the School Feeding programme across schools in the country.
Speaking in an Exclusive interview with Universnews, Nii Armah Addy indicated that since the introduction of the School Feeding programme as a pro -poor policy initiative intended to bridge the educational quality gap between rural school children and their counterparts in the cities, deliberate steps must be taken by government to settle the arrears of the caterers to engender the full potential of educational outcomes .
He was of the view that lack of proper strategies and optimum implementation of the government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs policy has contributed to the current plight of the School Feeding programme.
” The School Feeding Programme was initiated by the state to be a policy intervention targeted at poor and rural communities where school children struggle to feed themselves during school time and aimed at provide adequate meals to the rural communities where high levels of student absenteeism was affecting educational outcomes as compared to school children in the cities.
There must be serious commitment by state officials to provide resources to sustain the programme in order t realize the full import of the policy on helping to keep students in school as well as making significant gains in the holistic education of the children in those poor communities.
The inconsistent results of the Planting for Food and Jobs policy of the government through improper planning and lack of appropriate policy implementation measures has largely contributed to the challenges of the School Feeding Programme”.
Also, Nii Armah Addy bemoaned the fact that most pro poor policies introduced by various governments over the years have been massively politicized which has resulted into bad strategic planning methods which have mitigated the full value of such policies on the target population.
He admonished public policy makers and government officials to be guided by national interest and take critical decisions in the implementation of policies and programmes to exact the fullest potentials on the lives of the citizens.
” Unfortunately, the over politicization of issues in the country especially the ones targeted to the economically vulnerable groups in society like the School Feeding programme amongst a host of others has resulted in the target population not getting the full benefits of such programmes as well.
Some of such challenges include issue of food quality and quantity served to students served to students in both junior high and secondary schools across the country.
Governments must be guided by national interest in using taxpayer’s money in designing programmes and policies targeted for the large majority of the citizens and consistently take objective criticisms from all stakeholders in getting value for money for all such initiatives”.
