Tamale (N/R), June 19, – About 2,000 students of the Bagabaga and Tamale Teacher Training colleges in Tamale have embarked on a hunger strike to protest against the ”arbitrary” deduction of their allowances as feeding fees. The students, who started the strike on Wednesday, marched to the office of the regional director of education to present a petition. The school authorities want to implement the new feeding fee of 1,500 cedis a day for every boarding student with effect from April, while the students are insisting on being fed on the old budget of 800 cedis and therefore resisting deductions for April. The students in their petition appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to intervene, claiming that the meals being given them are far below the amount deducted. They suggested the introduction of the cafeteria system to enable students to have a choice over what to eat. The students showed to the press samples of the quality of food served them in the dining halls. Mr Ahmed Dramani, Regional Director of Education who is engaged in a shuttle diplomacy to get the students back to the dining halls, promised to send their grievance to the higher authorities concerned. He, however, said the decision to implement the new feeding fees from April was taken by the Conference of Principals of Teacher Training Colleges and that the students should not hold anyone personally responsible for it.
