Journalists in the Northern Region have been adequately briefed on the yet to be implemented free Senior High School double-track system.
Information Minister, Dr. Mustapha Hamid and a Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adu-Twum explained the policy at the Meet the Press encounter in Tamale.
The Information Minister said the discussion sought to get the participants well informed to positively change the public discourse.
According to Dr. Mustapha Hamid, the double-track system is to ensure that no child is left behind in the transition from Junior High to Senior High Schools.
He said students from the three regions of the north stand to benefit more from the policy because available statistics indicate that there was high school dropout at the Junior High School level due to poverty.
“We will develop the human resource capital of Northern Ghana though quality and an all-round education policy. We have done a number of interventions in the education sector that will allow for quality and better education.”
He admitted that there was infrastructure deficit at the Senior High Schools and gave the assurance that the problem will be fixed.
He called for a depoliticization of education matters.
The Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adu-Twum described the double-track system as a stopgap intervention required to allow government to meet the expected enrolment growth in Senior High Schools.
He disclosed that 541 lead schools nationwide will be affected to conveniently create enough spaces for
472, 000 Junior High School graduates projected to be placed in September 2018.
He further explained that government’s decision to pay in full for beneficiaries of the free SHS has ballooned enrolment, hence the decision to implement the double-track system.
“The system is to enable government have enough time to expand infrastructure and reverse to the single track when the mission is accomplished.”
“There is a new plan to build more schools and create enough space to accommodate more students.”
“Government will complete all uncompleted school infrastructure and add new ones.”
Dr. Yaw Osei Adu-Twum touted the double-track system as a time tested policy that has perfectly worked in other jurisdictions.
He said the double-track system calendar is to reduce class sizes, increase contact hours and increase the number of holidays.
“Appeal to development partners for support, partial securitization of GETfund receivables for infrastructure development and caping GETfund at 25% are the proposed options to close the gap.”
The two Ministers exhausted all questions regarding the yet to be implemented policy.
They rounded up saying, “President Nana Addo’s vision is to use a multifaceted approach to make Ghana the power house for education.”
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
