Second cycle institutions in the three northern regions may soon be forced to discontinue feeding boarding students as a result of lack of feeding grants. According to the heads of institutions, feeding grants had run out and the schools were at the moment surviving on the generosity of food suppliers, who had threatened to stop the supplies until the had been paid all monies due them. The decision by the northern sector conference of heads of assisted secondary schools (CHASS) will invariably affect the final year students, who are currently writing the senior secondary school certificate examinations.

The national President of CHASS, Mr. Bolina Saaka, said ?at the moment, we just do the goodwill of our suppliers. ?They have begun harassing us for their monies and sometimes you just do not know what excuse to give again,? he added. Mr. Saaka said that did not augur well for academic work as the heads? attention was torn between supervision and running around to buy foodstuffs on credit.

He stated that since the increase of the feeding grant from ?392,000 to ?513,000 per student per term at the beginning of the academic year, schools in the three northern regions were yet to receive the full grant. He explained that during the first and second terms, they had only received the previous feeding grant of ?392,000 instead of the new rate. Mr. Saaka added that at the beginning of the third term, which is still in session, only 40 per cent of the new rate had been paid to the schools which had not lasted more that five weeks. This amount excludes the arrears for the first and second terms. He, therefore, appealed to the appropriate authorities to expedite action on the release of the remaining funds to enable them to keep the students in school, since the measures intended could disorganize academic work.