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National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Tamale North Constituency, Hon. Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini has described the Free SHS policy as a mere strategy of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to win the next election.

According to him, the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy has nothing to do with quality education as it ought to, but rather the mindset of President Akufo-Addo and the ruling NPP is about maximising votes in the next elections to retain power.

Commenting on TV3's Morning Show on Wednesday regarding the annulment of 51 repeated students of Prempeh College by the Ghana Education Service (GES), Hon. Suhuyini indicated it is an act of intimidation against the headmaster of the school.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has directed the management of Prempeh Senior High School also known as Prempeh College in Kumasi to reverse its decision to repeat 51 first-year students at the end of the 2016/17 academic year because of poor performance.

It has further directed the management of the school to immediately draw up a remedial plan to support the affected students to enable them to complete their secondary education.

The affected students, some of whom have already left the school, are said to have failed in at least five subjects in the three terminal examinations of the last academic year, leading to their dismissal by the authorities of the school.

At the commencement of the 2017/2018 academic year, the authorities of the school were in a fix as to what to do with the affected students, following the introduction of the free SHS policy.

When some of the parents of the affected students heard reports of the dismissal of their children, they rushed to the school to discuss the fate of their children with the school authorities, but all staff members were tight-lipped on the issue.

But the former Radio Gold host of ‘Alhaji and Alhaji’ show stressed that many heads of the Senior High Schools are being intimidated to keep quiet about the happenings in the second cycle institutions since the inception of the Free SHS policy in order to sweep the challenges under carpet.

“I see the Free SHS policy to be the winning strategy of the NPP in the next elections and not that it is about quality education. There are so many challenges about the Free SHS policy and the headmasters are being intimidated not to talk about these challenges,” he indicated.

“When you go to the secondary schools, you will realise that students are sleeping on the floors because there are no student beds and their chop boxes are placed on the corridors,” the Tamale North NDC MP emphasized.

He however asserted that the happenings with the Free SHS policy have somehow vindicated President Mahama and the NDC as they canvassed for expansion of infrastructure in the education sector before the implementation of the Free SHS policy.