Ho, June 6, GNA - First and second year SSS students in the Ho Municipality have been sent home due to the absence of cooks in the schools.

The cooks who are members of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union are on strike to back their demand for improved conditions of service.

Mr David Afudego, Headmaster of Mawuli School told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the strike had seriously crippled academic work at the school.

He said the school administration had tried to use the school's home economics department to provide meals for the students but realized it was not practicable.

Mr Afudego said the situation therefore compelled the authorities to send the SSS one and two students home. He said SSS three students who were currently writing their exams were being given a feeding fee of 7,000 cedis a day until they finished the last paper.

The situation at OLA Secondary School is not different from that of Mawuli School where more than 800 continuing students were sent home Tuesday morning for safe feeding. Mrs Philomena Afeti, Headmistress, OLA Secondary School, said the option of giving money to the students to feed themselves was not acceptable to the school.

"Releasing 800 students from OLA to fend for themselves in town could put a lot of pressure on food vendors and we cannot guarantee the safety of food they would be buying," she stated. Mrs Afeti said it could also affect discipline in the school as monitoring would be a big problem and it would be a field's day for some to engage in nefarious activities.

However at Mawuko Girls, continuing students were still on campus when the GNA got there.

The GNA learnt that the school's Parent Teacher Association had temporarily engaged cooks to stand in for the striking kitchen staff. 06 June 06