No double-track system this year – Education Ministry

• Posted on April 4, 2022April 4, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The double-track system will not be implemented for the first-year students reporting to Senior High School (SHS) for the 2022/2023 academic year.

According to the Education Ministry, adequate preparations have been done this year to ensure that first-year students do not go through the shift system.

The double-track system was introduced in 2018 to reduce congestion in schools and create room to accommodate the projected increase in enrolment of Junior High School students into Senior High Schools.

After its introduction, the system was heavily criticised by a section of Ghanaians who lamented that it could run down the quality of education.

But at a press briefing in June 2021, the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, noted that the system will be halted in about two to three years.

Fast forward, the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, says the double-track system will not be introduced this year.

According to him, the limited infrastructure situation that prompted the double-track has been improved.

“That whole idea about dividing students into two where within a particular year group, we have one group go to school and after some weeks or months, they vacate and the other one comes to school, this time around we are not going to see that arrangement again.

“There has been significant improvement in terms of infrastructure,” he said on Accra-based Citi News.

He said GETFund had ensured the completion of about 1,400 infrastructure that had made it possible for the government to suspend the double-track system.

“In 2017, GETFund did an infrastructure review and realized that over 3,700 projects had been abandoned. Just after last year, over 1,400 of these projects have been done so clearly the result of this is accommodation to a large extent. So that brings a significant improvement in the accommodation situation we’ve been talking about.”

Mr Kwarteng further called on persons still having difficulty with placement to remain calm as the resolution centers remain open.

“Even though some first years are joining, our resolutions centres will still be there to help students who may have issues with their placements and will require assistance,” he noted.