Adequate provisions have been made to ensure uninterrupted feeding in all senior high schools (SHSs) as they reopen for the 2026/2027 academic year, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has assured students.

The minister also announced that President John Dramani Mahama had directed a review of the SHS menu to improve the quality and nutritional value of meals served to students, including the provision of eggs and chicken.

Mr Iddrisu gave the assurance last Friday when he paid a visit to Asankragua SHS and Asankragua Senior High Technical School (SHTS) in the Western Region, as students reported for the new academic year.

“I will follow further to examine the data, and then we’ll ensure that you don’t lack food. We have made adequate provisions for your meals. I’m happy to announce that President Mahama has directed that we review your menu to make it better,” he said.

Visits

The Education Minister is visiting rural and Category C schools across the country to assess how students are reporting on the first day of the academic year, examine the facilities available to them, and identify areas requiring attention.

This is in view of the government’s efforts to upgrade school infrastructure and improve the learning environment.

The visits are also providing the ministry with an opportunity to engage school authorities and students directly on challenges affecting teaching, learning and student welfare.

The assurance on feeding comes amid the government’s efforts to address challenges associated with the implementation of the Free SHS programme and ensure that students receive adequate and nutritious meals.

Feeding

For the 2026 fiscal year, the government has allocated GH¢4.2 billion for feeding under the programme, as part of a total allocation of GH¢9.6 billion to support the schools.

The government says the increased attention to feeding forms part of broader measures to improve the quality of Free SHS and ensure that students can learn in an environment where their basic welfare needs are adequately addressed.

Mixed experiences

Meanwhile, some parents and guardians of newly placed SHS students have expressed mixed reactions to the admission process.

While some described it as smooth and straightforward, others complained about delays, queues and the repetition of information already submitted online.

This came to light when a Daily Graphic team visited some SHSs in Accra to observe the reporting of Form One students for the 2026-2027 academic year.

At Accra High School and Accra Academy, while some parents said they had encountered little difficulty and had been able to move through the various stages relatively quickly, others said the process had taken several hours, raising concerns about the efficiency of some of the procedures.

One parent also questioned why information entered during the online admission process had to be provided again at the school.

At Accra High School, a parent, Gabriel Fosu-Opoku, said he has had a smooth experience since his daughter was placed at the school.

He said although he had heard reports of parents describing the admission process as tedious and cumbersome, his experience had been different.

Mr Fosu-Opoku said the family first went to the school about a week earlier and was able to go through the necessary procedures without encountering any major difficulty.

He said they returned to the school on Friday to complete the admission process for his daughter, who had been admitted as a boarder.

“Today, we’ve been here in less than an hour, and we are waiting in the queue just for them to do the screening of the prospectus and then we are through,” Mr Fosu-Opoku said.

Mr Fosu-Opoku said he did not consider the presence of queues and the number of parents at the school to be a major problem, explaining that parents had a responsibility to prepare adequately for the admission process.

For another parent, Lawrence Kearney, however, the process was not straightforward.

He said although parents were required to complete online forms before reporting to the school, they were subsequently asked to download and print the forms and go through similar procedures physically.

Mr Kearney said the process had resulted in a longer waiting time for him and his ward.

“We came here since 12 noon, and we are still here. We’ve not even been allocated any house," he said.

Process

The Headmistress of Accra High School, Evelyn Sagbil Nabia, said the admission process at the school had been smooth.

Her assessment was consistent with the experience of some parents who said they had moved through the admission stages without significant difficulty.

However, the contrasting account from Mr Kearney shows that the experience has not been uniform for all parents, with waiting times and the various stages involved in the process emerging as concerns for some.