A high-level meeting convened by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu to resolve the feeding crisis within the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme has ended without resolution, after the Administrator of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) openly refused to comply with a ministerial directive during the session.
The closed-door engagement, held on Friday, brought together the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), the Conference of Principals of Technical Institutions (COPTI), and the Free SHS Secretariat to address what school heads have described as severe difficulties in procuring perishable food items for students.
Following presentations from both CHASS and COPTI on the mounting pressure facing school authorities, Mr. Iddrisu directed that GETFund maintain the existing arrangement allowing CHASS to independently procure perishable food items to sustain feeding operations. The directive was immediately challenged by the GETFund Administrator, who told those present that procurement decisions fall outside the Minister’s oversight authority and that the office would not comply with the instruction. The open defiance produced a tense standoff that left the central dispute unresolved.
The breakdown has exposed significant coordination gaps among the agencies responsible for implementing one of Ghana’s most politically sensitive education policies. CHASS, which formally petitioned the Ministry over the feeding difficulties, has now warned that schools may have no choice but to suspend academic activities if funds are not released urgently to procure essential food items.
The warning raises the prospect of disruptions affecting thousands of students enrolled in public secondary schools across the country. COPTI similarly flagged the unsustainable pressure on principals struggling to maintain daily feeding under the programme.
Stakeholders are expected to reconvene in the coming days in an effort to break the impasse, though the public clash between the Ministry and GETFund has cast doubt on how quickly a resolution can be reached within the current institutional framework.
GETFund was designated as the primary financing vehicle for Free SHS under the 2025 budget, with GH¢4.2 billion allocated for the programme in 2026. Parliament approved the arrangement, but the dispute over procurement authority suggests that the governance arrangements between the Ministry and the fund have not been fully settled.
