Fallout From Nana’s Free SHS Girls Getting Pregnant -boys taken to drugs

Teenage pregnancy and drug abuse is fast gaining grounds in second cycle institutions across the country following the hasty implementation of President Akufo-Addo’s free Senior High School policy, TheaL-hAJJ’sinvestigations have uncovered.

Disturbing reports across the country reaching this paper indicate that some free SHS beneficiaries leaving in rented apartments due to lack of space in most boarding houses have now become bed warmers of hungry sex-seeking men whilst the boys have taken to drug abuse.

“The girls have started getting pregnant and the boys too have started smoking wee,” a house master in one of the Senior High Schools in the BrongAhafo region told this paper on strict condition of anonymity.
Narrating the dire conditions in second cycle institutions in the country, a headmaster of one of the schools in the Northern region also told TheaL-hAJJ; “the problem here is that the number of students GES tasked us to admit into the boarding houses were way beyond our capacity. We had no choice than to admit them and when the space at the boarding house was full, we asked the rest to find alternative accommodation in town”.
The headmaster continued “these students through their parents teamed up to rent apartments in town. And that is where they leave and come to school every day. I have personally visited some of them and it is sad that in some of the rooms, you’ll see as many as 10 girls or boys in one room. This problem is across the country. Some of the schools can admit only 200 students into the boarding house but they were asked to admit 400, others that can take 300 have been asked to admit 700. Where are they going to find space for the rest? Meanwhile some of these students are coming from far places”
According to him “unlike the boarding houses where you have the house masters and other prefects ensuring discipline, the situation at where these young boys and girls are leaving leaves much to desire. There is nobody there to ensure they sleep on time or not to go out at night among other things… So generally they are exposed to all forms of negative tendencies,” the headmaster asserted.
The story in the Western, Central, Eastern and Volta regions is no different, TheaL-hAJJ sources have revealed.
The sources told this paper that some of the newly admitted students leaving off campus have taken to “bad habits”.
“Recently, one of the girls was withdrawn from our school after it was proven that she was pregnant. When our attention was drawn to it, we alerted her parents and they took a decision to withdraw her,” a senior tutor in one of the Senior High School in the BrongAhafo region told this paper.
Asked if the student was part of the newly admitted free SHS beneficiaries, he answered in the affirmative, adding, “Because these girls are from poor homes, they are easily lured by the young men in the towns. It is worrying that less than a term, some of these girls are getting pregnant and some are even not attending classes anymore.”
A house master in one of the popular schools in the Volta region said “these boys have started smoking wee. When you move in town in the night, you’ll see them with some of the known wee smokers standing in obscure placerss. When they come to class, either they look dull or behave strangely.
The capital city, Accra, is not spared of this awful spectacle as reports from some of the schools indicate that newly admitted students have no place to lay their heads let alone get tables and chairs to sit on in their classrooms.
Accra based Citi Fm reported how newly admitted students at La Presec were sitting on makeshift chairs comprising wooden planks supported by cement blocks when the station visited the school. The lucky ones, the station reported, had tables, as others were seen with their books on their thighs and bags on the dusty floor.
In other parts of country, while infrastructure problem remains unattended, they are also saddled with reported cases of drug usage and teenage pregnancy.
These developments confirm Mr Bernard Allotey Jacobs, Central regional chairman of the National Democratic Congress’ predictions that the free SHS will breed teenage pregnancy.
Speaking onAdomFm, MrAllotey Jacobs said “teenage pregnancies will increase under this Free SHS policy because many of the young girls have been forced to live in private hostels with boys and that is a recipe for disaster. Free SHS after three years will produce teenage mothers”.