The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) says it is concerned that the agitation by students of the Binduri Community Day School in the Upper East Region could play up in other schools within the region.

On Wednesday, students of the community day school protested against feeding challenges in the school.

Speaking with JoyNews, some students say the caterers no longer prepare meals for them and when they do, it is a repeat of the same dish, and usually salt deficient.

A male student obviously angered by the situation, said they are fed once a day and that the food is often tasteless.

“They are providing them with food three times but here only once, they cook it without salt, it’s always banku. We are here suffering every day, what is wrong with us?” he asked.

Another female student said “they stopped cooking for us from 29th May up till date [July 12, 2023] they haven’t started cooking for us (again).”

“We have made a petition to the authorities, yet there is no feedback. That’s the reason we are out here and not in class,” she said.

Meanwhile, CHASS fears the challenges could hamper the smooth operations of the school and might create tensions between school authorities and the students and possibly spread to other schools.

The Upper East Regional Secretary of CHASS, Bukari Abdul said following the demonstration, the school has partially been shut down.

“What has happened in Bunduri is likely to influence other students in other schools to also agitate,”

He admitted that the students have filed a complaint, however, he said he asked that the students channel their report to their immediate authority, that is the district or regional directors to deal with the issue.

Mr Abdul added that the situation was worrying because other boarding schools also suffered a similar challenge.

Touching on some food items the boarding schools lacked, he said, “Groundnut has become a problem and from January till now we have not had milk, bread flour too has become a challenge so we do without it.”

He seized the opportunity to appeal to the government and the National Buffer Stock Company to resolve the issues because beneficiaries of the free Senior High School were at the receiving end of the disparities.

Meanwhile, Binduri District Director of Education, John Jaggrey Soka says there will soon be an emergency meeting with the school authorities on the issue to get the caterer to resume cooking from Monday.