Accra, March 7, GNA - The Ghana Education Service is not directly responsible for payment of feeding grants to senior high schools in the three northern regions, an official of the service said on Friday. Mr Paul Kofi Krampa, Deputy Director of Public Relations of the GES, said because students in the three regions were on government bursary the onus for such payments rested with the scholarship secretariat.

"All that the GES can do is to play a facilitating role to ensure that the funds are released on time to avoid break in the academic calendar," he said.

Mr Krampah was reacting to the threat by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to close down all public senior high schools in the three northern regions if feeding grant for the students were not released by Thursday, March 13.

The headmasters in a statement issued in Tamale said it had become necessary to close down the schools due to the inability of the government to release grants to feed the students.

They claimed that since the beginning of the academic year, only 40 per cent of the first term feeding grant for SHS 2 and SH S3 had been received. The schools did not receive anything for the SHS 1 students. Consequently, CHASS on December 22, 2007 and January 29, 2008 wrote to the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, the regional ministers of the three regions and the Director General of the Ghana Education Service explaining the plight of the schools.

The headmasters said they managed the situation by lifting food items from suppliers on credit with the hope that the grant would be released for them to settle the debts owed from the first and second terms.