A Deputy Education Minister has assured authorities are working feverishly to fix infrastructural problems that have engulfed the ongoing free Senior High School education policy.

Dr Yaw Adutwum told Joy News’ Matilda Wemega in two weeks everywhere there is need for furniture in the schools, it will be made available.

His assurances come in the wake of challenges that have dogged the education policy since its implementation started in September this year.

The flagship policy of the governing New Patriotic Party is to create a more literate society and to make education easily accessible to all.

Under the new policy, there is free tuition, “no admission fees, no library fees, no science centre fees, no computer lab fees, no examination fees, no utility fees; there will be free textbooks, free boarding and free meals, and day students will get a meal at school for free,” president Nana Akufo-Addo explained.

“Free SHS will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the high school level. I also want to state clearly again that we have a well-thought-out plan that involves the building of new public senior high schools and cluster public senior high schools,” he added.

Over 400,000 Junior High School graduates are benefitting from the policy at least for this year.

Barely two months after the policy kick-started, there have been some challenges with the students reported as sleeping on verandahs and other makeshift structures.

The quality of food served to the students has also come under some scrutiny.

Joy News’ Upper West Region Correspondent, Rafiq Salam, visited the Kaleo Senior High Technical School and reported students had concerns over the quality of food served.

There were also reports of congestion in dormitories in some schools.

Responding to the challenges, the Deputy Education Minister said the ministry is under no illusions at all that no challenges that will come up in the course of implementing the policy.

According to him, there are hotspots which the ministry is quickly attending to.

Citing a number of schools which need urgent attention, the Deputy Minister said they are moving very fast to have the problems addressed.

He commended the media for exposing some of the challenges that have greeted the policy, challenges he explained existed even before the policy was introduced.

That notwithstanding, he said the ministry is working towards finding a lasting solution to all the challenges.

For some of the schools that have challenges with dormitories, he said contracts have been awarded and the contractors have been asked to expedite action in completing the job.