The government has fumigated 670 Senior High Schools across the country, following reports of bed bug infestation in some schools.

Former President John Dramani Mahama, on his recent campaign tour, said he encountered many students with bed-bug complaints due to congestion in their schools.

He attributed the problem to defects in the free SHS policy and urged the government to get the schools fumigated.

In an address to the press on Monday, 5 November, Minister of Information Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah said former President Mahama’s comments only sought to demonise the Free SHS programme.

“In all, about 678 out of the nearly 700 public Senior High Schools have been fumigated. Let me state that as I speak to you this morning, we don’t have records of the last time all Senior High Schools or all public schools in Ghana were fumigated comprehensively, as has been done in this exercise even including under or during the Mahama administration, so, it’s interesting that things that were not done even under that administration, when they are done today, the former president pretends that he’s not aware of it or seeks to make comments that are aimed at undermining them.”



Mr Oppong-Nkrumah said: “The government has just completed the exercise of fumigating 678 schools across the length and breadth of this country. The fumigation exercise was completed just about a week ago. In the Ashanti Region, 120 schools were fumigated; in the Brong Ahafo Region, 80 schools; Central Region, 70 schools; Eastern Region, 37; Greater Accra Region, about 50 schools; Northern Region, about 52 schools; Upper East Region, 34; Upper West Region, 21 schools; Volta Region, about 100 schools; and the Western Region, another 54 schools.”