Free SHS students mostly getting pregnant - Otokunor

The Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Otokunor, has said that the beneficiaries of free SHS are mostly susceptible to malaria and teenage pregnancy.

Peter Otokunor was reacting to recent comments made by President Akufo-Addo regarding the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

Speaking in an interview on Neat FM, Otokunor said he felt "Akufo-Addo has lost touch" with issues because Mahama and the NDC have never opposed the Free SHS policy.

“Students enjoying free SHS are being bitten by mosquitoes because there is no school building to sit in to learn; they are getting pregnant here and there because when their track ends and they go home, they have nothing to do; that is why we were advocating for infrastructure,” he said.

Otokunor said the president is not in touch with the reality in this country as he is completely out of touch because NDC has continuously indicated that they would review the free SHS policy.

The President, while addressing staff and students of the Bolgatanga SHS said some people were out to make the free SHS fail.

His remarks generated a lot of reactions especially from the opposition NDC who felt President Akufo-Addo’s attack on John Mahama over the matter is unnecessary.

Meanwhile, former President John Dramani Mahama has clarified that he does not intend to scrap the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme, rather insisting the policy is “here to stay”.

According to him, the Free SHS programme is underpinned and guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and therefore cannot be overturned by any government.

Mahama was speaking at the 27th Annual Residential Delegates Congress organised by the Ghana National Union of Technical University Students in Kumasi.