Free SHS: Double-track is research-driven & result-oriented – MoE

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum says the double-track system introduced after the implementation of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy is a research drive and result-oriented.

Speaking to Citi News, the Education Minister said the double-track system was designed with a commitment to increase access to secondary education, particularly in high-demand schools where facility limitations have historically restricted enrollment.

“This year, a number of schools are moving away from double-track because they have enough facilities. So the whole premise is this, every young man growing up in Ghana wants to come to PRESEC.

What does that mean for us as a nation? We need to provide more facilities so that Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School (PRESEC) can educate more students for us.

But until we get those facilities, it makes sense to divide the PRESEC population into three, keep one at home while two of them are here until such a time that you can put up more buildings and all of them will come at the same time. So it’s well thought through.

This system has been used in a number of countries around the world, including the United States of America. So what we are introducing here is research-driven. If the double track is such a bad thing, Why is it that PRESEC has implemented it and they have gotten better outcomes than when there was no double track?”

Relatedly, the Minister for Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has said the gold and green track system or double-track introduced to contain enrolment in the second cycle schools is a leapfrog method that will help the country in the long run.

Speaking at the Minister’s Press Briefing monitored by Pretertiary.com, the Minister for Education said Ghana adopted a leapfrog strategy with a double-track system to be successful as a country like others.

“A strategy where you don’t allow classrooms to be empty when school-going age children are on the street selling dog chains and can not have the opportunity for secondary education

So the double-track system is a leapfrog strategy, it is time tested, I have taught in the program in America of all places where there is money, they use it in California until they had the money to take it away,” he stressed.