The Minority in Parliament has attributed the over 1,400 incidents of teenage pregnancy among Senior High School students to the government’s double track system under its Free SHS flagship programme.
According to the Ranking Member on the Education Committee Peter Nortsu Kotoe, the long period of time some students spend at home occasioned these pregnancies.
Addressing the press in Parliament on Wednesday, the Minority listed several problems with the double-track system.
“When we interacted with heads of institutions and students as part of an outreach to twelve Senior High Schools across the country, we noticed that the school authorities no longer have control over the quantity of food and they don’t have a way of assessing the quality of the food. We have examples of expired and unwholesome produce being supplied to the schools. Clearly, we cannot accept this arrangement where state resources are expended and yet the quality of food cannot be vouched for,” he noted.
He further justified his claim on the teenage pregnancy rate increasing due to Free SHS by referring to some statistics given by the National Director of girls’ education unit at the Ghana Education Service Benedicta Seidu in an article written by Ghanaweb days ago.
He said: “This is an official of GES in charge of girl child education. Let the point be made that this story has been in circulation in excess of the week. And if as we speak, the GES or the officer quoted in the story has not refuted it.”
Meanwhile, Peter Nortsu had earlier demanded that the headmaster of the Suhum Presbyterian Senior High School be sanctioned for allowing his students to be exposed to politics.
This followed a man who was seen in a viral video convincing the students to impress on their relatives to vote for the New Patriotic Party so they can keep benefiting from the Free SHS programme – an action the GES has outlawed.
In a Citi News interview, Peter Kotoe Nortsu who cited a similar incident that occurred at the Tempane SHS months ago condemned the action saying it was a clear infringement of GES instructions and therefore must not be encouraged.
Hawa Koomson on Free SHS
On her part, the Minister for Special Development Initiative, Mavis Hawa Koomson has said that the Free Senior High School policy has reduced the number of Junior High School graduates who would have engaged in social vices.
According to her, the policy has reduced the high rate of teenage pregnancy among many female junior high school graduates and reduced the rate of armed robbery among male graduates.
“…if not for free SHS the girls some of you would have been pregnant by now. And the boys some of you would have been armed robbers. But thanks be to Free SHS and His Excellency the President Nana Akufo Addo. Very soon you will become assets to this country,” she said to students in the Awutu Senya East constituency.