Kwaku Ofori Asiamah speaking at the event
TRANSPORT MINISTER, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has stated that the introduction of the double-track system in some selected senior high schools (SHSs) has helped nearly 200,000 junior high school (JHS) leavers who otherwise would have been left at home due to lack of space to accommodate them.
Mr. Ofori Asiamah made the observation on Saturday, October 13, 2018, at the 75th Anniversary Speech and Prize Giving Day of Ghana Senior High School at Effiduasi – Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
The Minister of Transport who himself is an old student of Ghana Senior High School represented the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as the special guest of honour.
According to the minister, the initiative introduced by the Ministry of Education is the best option to manage the existing infrastructure and space in the various SHSs. He wondered how the situation would have been if the system had not been implemented.
He disclosed: “Between 2013 and 2016, about 100,000 children every year who passed their BECE and were placed in senior high schools did not take up their place. This translated to about 28% of the total number of BECE candidates.
“This meant that in one decade, we would be saddled with about 1 million citizens whose highest point of education would be junior high school. You cannot build a country that way and become globally competitive, particularly in the 21st century knowledge economy. In the first year of the Free SHS policy, the rate of students who did not enroll after being placed fell to about 17% from the annual average of 28%.”
He stated: “In 2018, the number of candidates who registered for the BECE jumped from 468,060 in 2017 to 521,710. The 2017 figure had been the highest since 2013. According to our 2018 projections, out of the 521,710 candidates who sat for the BECE this year, 472,730 candidates are expected to enroll when placed. This represents a massive 30.7% jump over the 2017 figure of 361,770 enrolled students. The rise in percentage terms between 2016 and 2017 was 17.2%”.
“By implementing the double-track system, we are able to ensure that we make the best possible use of the space and resources available to us in our schools throughout the year. Schools that operate the double-track system have increased their Form One intake by up to 50% of their usual Form One capacity, and the students are placed on either of two tracks – the green and gold tracks,” he added.
He said it is government’s position that every child who qualifies to be in SHS must be given the opportunity to do so, stressing that it was out of this idea that the double-track system was born as an intervention to address the unavailability of space in the various SHSs.
The minister added that to deliver effective teaching and learning with the double-track system, the Akufo-Addo government is engaging about 8,000 extra teachers into the various SHSs.