No double-track this year as first-year SHS students report to school
As the first year Senior High School students report to school today Monday, April 4 2022, the Education Ministry has revealed that this year there will be no double-track system.
The system was introduced in 2018 to deal with the congestion in schools as many schools had limited facilities to accommodate a large number of students admitted due to the increased enrollment.
Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, faced stiff criticism at the initial stages of the system and while addressing the press in June 2021, he revealed that it will take about two to three years to end it.
However, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng announced that the double-track system will not be implemented this year as adequate preparations have been put in place to welcome the first-year students.
“That whole idea about dividing students into two were 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.
He explained that the limited infrastructure situation that prompted the double-track has been improved.
Mr Kwarteng touted the contribution of GETFund which 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 has 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.”
Kwasi Kwarteng urged persons still having difficulty with placement to remain calm as the resolution centres 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.
