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The National Youth Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Sammy Awuku has disclosed that the various Heads and Managment of Senior High Schools across the country, were each given 5% allocation to make their own admissions.

According to him, government arrived at the decision because it recognizes that each school authority may have to satisfy persons such as patrons of the school, Chiefs, Pastors and other opinion leaders who will come seeking for admissions for their wards.

The opposition NDC Minority Caucus in Parliament claimed government was threatening School heads with dismissal over the Free Senior High School programme.

But Sammy Awuku who’s a member of the Free SHS Implementation Committee while speaking on Peace FM refuted the allegation, saying government rather has given the School Heads laxity.

“For instance if you declared that you had space for 500 students in your school it means that, that School head of of the declared number can personally admit 25 students, of which he/she can satisfy some of these individuals mentioned earlier. I heard the NDC saying that government is intimidating the Heads, but that is far from the truth. Government rather gave them the laxity, that is why I stated earlier that I may not have the permission to put this information out, but this is the reality.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday launched the free SHS policy at Adenta in Accra.

The Free SHS Policy, a flagship education programme of the government seeks to increase access to Secondary Education by removing the burden of paying fees from parents.

Under the policy, the government would foot all bills including feeding fees, tuition fees and all other charges.

Over 142,000 eligible students would enjoy the programme which has already kicked off.