The Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Professor Seidu Alhassan, has revealed that most public schools [both Tertiary and Senior High Schools] for the past 20years are still cooking for students using firewood and charcoal.
He mentioned the Bagabaga College of Education (BATCO), Tamale College of Education (TACE) and the Tamale Technical University (TaTU) as some of the institutions engaged in the practice. Similarly, the Ghana Senior High School (Ghanasco) in Tamale and the Tamale Senior High School (Tamasco) are among the second cycle schools also engaged in the practice.
The Vice Chancellor made this revelation in his speech during the 2024 Green Ghana Day launch at the UDS multipurpose auditorium in Tamale under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources last week.
“It will shock you to understand, when I got this invitation, I decided to do a rapid kind of study so that when I am talking and presenting it, I can say it without fear.”
“This study, I tried to visit all the Senior High Schools in Tamale including the Colleges. Our institutions for the past 20years (that is what the study revealed), they are still cooking for our students using firewood. No institution, Bagabaga College, TATCO, even TaTU, Tamasco, Ghanasco, they all use fuel woods, some of them use charcoal, so there’s demand for it” he emphasized.
However, Professor Seidu stated home economics students at the Tamale Technical University contribute to buy gas for their cooking activities, adding if a group of students have already started this, then it is possible to promote the use of gas by subsidizing it and ensuring that it is accessible to the schools.
He further implored the government to show interest in the kind of fuel being used by matrons contracted to cook for students at the basic school level under the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
“Interestingly, the institutions revealed to me that one of the fuel woods they like most is the Shea tree because it burns faster.”
Meanwhile, the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, during the launch said the amount of forest the country has lost between 2010 and 2015 alone far exceeds the area of forest cultivated between 1963 and 2016, a whopping 53years, adding this stands at one hundred and fifty-seven thousand, three hundred hectares (157,300 ha).
He stated the Green Ghana Project is therefore one of the measures the Akufo-Addo government has adopted to curb the incessant degradation of the country’s forests, which has been ongoing for years without any conscious effort to replace them, and to contribute to the global fight against climate change.
The Minister said the government planted some forty-two million (42,000,000) trees in the last three years and target to plant an additional ten million trees this year.
