![\"vitting-shs-students-sleeping-under-trees-3\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Vitting-SHS-students-sleeping-under-trees-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe infrastructure deficit is a major challenge associated with the implementation of the Free Senior\u00a0 High School programme.<\/p>\n
This situation has compelled some school authorities across the country to convert dining halls and in some cases classroom blocks into dormitories, to accommodate beneficiaries of the programme.<\/p>\n
Tamale Vitting Senior High School in the Northern Region is one of such schools where students are compelled to sleep under trees, on the veranda of the school library and in classrooms.<\/p>\n
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It is one of the most densely populated second cycle institutions in the Tamale Metropolis, located off the Tamale-Yendi Highway.<\/p>\n
With a population of 1,400 boarding students, the school has only five overcrowded and dilapidated dormitories, comprising four for male and one for female students.<\/p>\n
The overcrowded boys’ dormitories namely Dakpema,\u00a0 Vitting, Nkrumah and Gbewaa, have cracked walls, leaked roofing and broken windows.<\/p>\n
The implementation of the free SHS has worsened the situation compelling final year students to sacrifice their beds for some beneficiaries of the programme.<\/p>\n
Those sleeping in the open are exposed to mosquitoes, and other reptiles coupled with the dusty and moist harmattan weather.<\/p>\n
![\"vitting-shs-students-sleeping-under-trees-5\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Vitting-SHS-students-sleeping-under-trees-5.jpg\")
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The female students share beds, while some sleep on the bare floor.<\/p>\n
![\"vitting-shs-students-sleeping-under-trees-4\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Vitting-SHS-students-sleeping-under-trees-4.jpg\")
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