Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, 323 Schools are not on a double-track system out of 721 Public Senior High Schools in the Country.
According to him, currently, 398 out of 721 schools run the double-track system due to high intake, but the minister said contact hours also increased to 1,134 hours from 1,080 to make teaching and learning more effective.
Speaking at a panel discussion on the topic: “Protecting the vulnerable through enhanced access to education, jobs, and social services,” at maiden Ghana Results Fair 2020, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh added that
In the previous system, students stayed on vacation for five months during each academic year, but with the double track, they stayed for six months to make up the lost time.
The three-day national fair was on the broad theme: “Delivering results for our citizens: A work in progress.”
The Free SHS policy is a Government of Ghana initiative introduced by the President Nana Akufo-Addo administration in September 2017. The policy had been a major campaign policy prior to the election of President Akufo-Addo in 2016.
In 2018, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo and his team of governance introduced another initiative as part of the Free SHS Education Policy which is the Double Track System.
The Double Track System was introduced by the government in order to enable various Senior High Schools in Ghana to take in more students and ensure that all Ghanaian students have access to a Senior High School education.
The Double Track System is in two sessions, thus The Green Track and The Gold Track. The Green Track represents the first batch of students who would go to school for a semester and are later followed by the Gold Track students who would continue after students of the green track session have vacated on the academic calendar.
The Government spent GH¢212 million from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) in the first year of implementing the program.
The program has now been removed from the list of projects funded with the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).
Source: Kofi Atakora
