Double-track system cause of teenage pregnancy surge – Mahama

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has blamed the surge in teenage pregnancy in the country on the double-track system introduced to contain high enrolment in second-cycle schools.
“We are going to improve the feeding and quality of the food our children get. We are going to give the feeding grants directly to the schools to purchase the food and the headmasters and the Bursar will go to the local market and buy the beans from here, and the groundnut paste from there.
“Then, also, we are going to cancel the obnoxious double-track system. Our children must all go to school at the same time and vacate at the same time. We don’t want our children to go to school and come and stay home for three months
By the time they go back, they’ve forgotten everything they’ve taught them. Some of our daughters get pregnant and destroy their lives completely so we will finish the e-blocks, we will continue the facilities in the existing schools so that we can create more space for our children. So that all of them can go to school together and all of them can vacate together,” he said.
In line with Mahama, the National Communication Officer for NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, says his party’s flagbearer if elected into power in 2025 will provide free quality Senior High School (SHS) education and abolish the double-track system.
In an interview on GTV Breakfast Show sighted by Pretertiary.com, he explained that the double-track system is detrimental to children’s education due to inadequate infrastructure, exacerbated by the increasing number of students.
He assured Ghanaians that when John Dramani Mahama assumes the presidency on January 7, 2025, the double-track system will be eliminated by January 2026, allowing all Senior High School students to attend school simultaneously.
The opposition party spokesperson emphasized that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will collaborate with private schools to utilize their idle facilities and support the free SHS policy when they come into power.
Relatedly, the Minority Caucus in Parliament in the 2019 academic year urged the central government to immediately discontinue the double track system introduced at the Senior High School (SHS) level.
The Caucus said the gold and green tack system is having negative consequences on the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) program and also leading to teenage pregnancy among female students.
The Ranking Member on Education, Peter Nortsue Kotoe said the Minority is convinced that phasing out the double-track system will reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy in government secondary schools.
“The Ghana Education Service, Girl Child Education Unit, published the figures but they did not attribute it to any reason. We have interacted with a number of managers of our SHS, and workers in the sector and we have come to the conclusion that this double-track system is largely responsible
If you look at the way the students are being placed, far away from their homes and not even given boarding facilities and parents have to look for accommodation for them before they can attend school, these are the things that we looked at critically to convince ourselves that for the SHS to be successful, we need to phase it out,” he said.