Double Track implementation was necessary for free SHS success – NAPO

Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has said the implementation of the double-track system in 2018 in Senior High Schools was necessary to ensure the success of the President’s vision of Free SHS.

According to a press release issued by the Public Relations Office of the Education Ministry, Dr Prempeh made this justification about the double-track when he addressed this year’s National Education Week (NEW) currently taking place at the Accra International Conference Centre.

The two-day event that ends on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, is under the theme ‘Reforming the Education Sector for Effective Service Delivery: Assessing Progress.’

According to the release from the Education Ministry’s PR office, the Minister stated that with the introduction of Free SHS, it became important to innovate for every child to gain access to senior high school education.

The Free SHS policy has been cited for the jump in the Senior High School population from 800,000 in the 2016/17 academic year to 1.2 million in the 2019/20 academic year.

Stressing on the government’s desire that no child should be left behind, Dr Prempeh asked rhetorically, “whose child should stay at home?”

Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Mr Kwasi Obeng Fosu, also said in the release that because COVID-19 and school closures have affected the majority of children in the world, “there is currently a huge amount of thinking, collaboration, innovation, experimentation and research occurring in Ghana and across all countries to enable education, teaching and learning to still happen in the context of COVID-19.”

He said this presents a critical opportunity to have new conversations about education reform and delivery, assessing progress so far, and what needs to be changed to plan for the future.