Kumasi — RESPONDENTS, in a survey in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region, have urged the government to do more, in respect of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), to get the desired results.

The interviewees, including educationists, traditional rulers, the clergy, market women and students, urged the government to extend the School Feeding Programme to all government basic schools in the country.

According to an Information Services Department (ISD) report, on public reaction to free maternal care and other major government programmes and policies, in the Sekyere East district, the respondents expressed the need for all Ghanaian children to enjoy the benefits of the programme.

They also suggested that if possible, the programme be extended to cover at least all pupils in the lower primary schools, from classes one to three, in the country.

Some educationist are also said to have expressed worry about the fact that the School Feeding Programme was being run by the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Environment, through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies.

They complained that some of the women, engaged by the Assemblies to prepare meals for the pupils, were not nutritionists, and therefore had compromised the balanced diet for the children, thus defeating the government's aim of giving every school child one nutritious meal a day.

It has therefore been suggested, that the programme engage the services of matrons in the educational sector, who are experts when it comes to preparing well-balanced diets for students.

Reacting to the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), the majority of the interviewees lauded the government for the bold initiative to alleviate poverty among the vulnerable.

A few of them, however, maintained that the money should have been channelled into setting up small scale industries to employ more people, or used in the training of Junior High school graduates, who could not further their education to the Senior High schools.

Reacting to the policy on free maternal care for women, most of the respondents were full of praise for the government, for coming to the aid of pregnant women, and noted that it would certainly help reduce the rate of maternal mortality, since it would encourage pregnant women to seek medical care at the health facilities.

They, therefore, called on the government to train more midwives, and other paramedical staff, to meet the resultant high attendance of pregnant women.

One particular female respondent, however, expressed her disappointment with the suggestion that the programme should be made to cover all pregnant women.

She was of the view that the "policy should have been made to cover only pregnant women who are properly married" expressing the fear that the policy could lead to a population explosion, because women would indulge in giving birth without considering the social implications.

An opinion leader, who was not named by the ISD report, emphasized the need for the government to device a means of sustaining the programme, should the British Government withdraw sponsorship.

All the respondents, according to the report, expressed their appreciation to the government, for the introduction of the Mass Cocoa Spraying Programme, which they said had led to high yields, since it was introduced.