The Member of Parliament for the Sagnarigu constituency in the Northern region, Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini has claimed that the free SHS policy by the governing New Patriotic Party is creating an “apartheid system” in several schools across the country.

Speaking to GHONE TV’s Nana Aba Anamoah on State of Affairs Tuesday, the NDC MP said he had gathered that most second and third-year students – who are not covered by the Free SHS policy – are fed differently from first-year students who are given “crappy” food.

“There’s an apartheid system existing in our schools today, if you go there, you’ll find out that first years, they are fed separately from the second and third years and their food is crap.

“Go to many schools, Achimota is in Accra here, you’ll find out, it is because of the monies paid and the inability of the monies to meet the feeding needs of the schools…there is a very terrible thing happening in the schools,” Hon. Fuseini said.

Under the free SHS policy, about 400,000 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates who qualified for admission to SHS are expected to enjoy free tuition, textbooks, meals, library usage, admission, examination, uniforms and Students Representative Council (SRC) dues.

To ensure the successful implementation of the policy, the government, on September 8, 2017, released GH¢280 million out of the GH¢486 million required for the flagship programme.

The programme has, however, been characterized by challenges of feeding, accommodation and many others that the opposition and experts say, needs to be thoroughly dealt with or can collapse the policy.