A Senior High School student has implored the government to allow parents who can afford to pay for the fees of their wards to be allowed to do so.

Ewurama (Not her real name), who spoke to Joy FM on condition of anonymity, said this will reduce the burden on managers of Senior High Schools resulting from delays in release of funds by the government.

According to her, students experience various challenges due to lack of funds to finance the operations of the schools.

"Personally, I sit on a broken chair. The screws at the back are not properly tightened so it just swings me back and forth, disturbing the class during lessons and we can barely pay attention. But I don't see the need for us to suffer when some of us can pay for education," she said, Thursday, on the Super Morning Show.

Ewurama is among Senior High School students who are enrolled under the Free Senior High School programme. She acknowledged that the programme is laudable since it has offered students who otherwise would not have access to second cycle education, the opportunity to do so and called for the lapses in the implementation of the policy to be addressed.

Raising concerns over various challenges encountered at school, she intimated that teachers rush through the syllabus because they don’t know when the government will call off a particular semester due to the erratic nature of the double-track system.

She added that food served from the School kitchens is also a challenge.

"Sometimes the meals we're given, especially the rice is terribly cooked. I think because they try to manage the food they have, they add excessive water," she said.

She further lamented congestion in dormitories, classrooms etc, due to large numbers enrolled under the programme.

"In my dormitory for instance, we have eight beds and some of the beds are broken. There are no proper spacing too," she said.

A teacher, who also spoke on the show on condition of anonymity confirmed the claims.

According to her, the quality and quantity of food served to the students have reduced.

"Sometimes, we have 12 students at a table sharing two tins of sardines," she said.

A teacher, who identified herself as Doku noted that, teachers are afraid to complain for fear of being victimised by their employers.

She said students are restricted to information provided them in class alone due to lack of text books.

"You realise that when students read further, it broadens their scope of knowledge, but in this case, they rely on only what they are taught in class and you can't complain."

Speaking on other challenges, she said teachers have no authority to tell students to buy materials needed for teaching and learning.

"When the programme [Free SHS and the Double Track System] started, if the students come to your class and the student is supposed to have, let’s assume a maths set. Then you tell the student, “In the next class make sure you come with a maths set.

“The next time, you realize your name has been mentioned at the Administration office that you asked a student to go and buy a maths set,” she said.

She added that, teachers sometimes sacrifice their allowance to feed the students.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday's edition of the Super Morning Show, some parents raised concerns over issues hampering the implementation of the free SHS programme.

According to them, they preferred paying school fees to having their children continue under the free SHS programme due to lapses in the rollout of the policy.

They said though the programme allows for free tuition, they have to spend more on providing private tuition for their wards during the vacation period.

Other concerns raised were on the quality of food and accommodation.