Students of Our Lady of Lourdes Girls’ Senior High School in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region protested on Monday, May 22, 2023, over what they described as “poor and tasteless” food prepared for them over the past weeks.
According to them, the school has been preparing rice-related meals with few ingredients for their consumption for the past week without changing varieties. The situation, they say, has caused some of their colleagues to begin having some serious health complications, thereby calling for a change in food preparation.
A video that went viral on social media showed the students chanting that they would not eat rice again. “We need change,” they screamed. One of the distinct voices in the video could be heard saying, “We will not eat this tasteless food again; we want change. We want change.”
It would also be recalled that 22 second-year students and five third-year students from Saint Bernadette’s Technical Institute in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region were suspended indefinitely by the school’s principal, Miss Memuna Fuseini.
In a letter that was signed by the principal, it was claimed that on December 4, 2022, the students engaged in a riot that resulted in the destruction of school property and put the lives of the school’s staff at risk.
They school was thus indefinitely shutdown.
Additionally, Zamse Senior High School students engaged in a violent altercation amongst themselves.
Speaking to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, the Upper East Regional Executive Secretary of the Peace Council, Ali Anankpieng, explained that these situations may have been largely due to a lack of communication.
“If you look at the reasons for the riots at Saint Bernadette’s Technical Institute and the one at Zamse, you will see that people are failing to talk. Students and management do not see themselves as stakeholders, and they are not talking,” he said.
Mr. Anankpieng explained that if the management of schools clearly engaged students, there would be better results. Additionally, if students are able to find the platform to properly engage with management, these issues could be avoided.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
