Mahama’s promise to abolish double-track will destroy SHS system – Dr. Adutwum

Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has said former President John Dramani Mahama’s promise to abolish the double-track system which accompanied the Free SHS will disrupt the country’s education.

According to him, the double-track system is the foundation of the Free SHS programme thus any attempts to prematurely remove it will prove more chaotic.

He said it will not only affect the Free SHS policy but the entire education system in the country.

During an interaction on the Citi Breakfast Show, he said “that proposition will send us into a tailspin. It will destroy Senior High School as we know it.”

In an attempt to provide further explanation to his argument, Dr Adutwum said; “those students who are in form two, the 1,000, will not fit at PRESEC. Then the first year’s coming in, you will have to reduce enrolment by a thousand. So essentially, we have a 2,000-student problem. Where are you sending them to?”

Adding that “So if parents refuse to take the private school selection that we are talking about, the double track has been eliminated and parents don’t like the schools that you want their children to go to, there will be chaos in this country.”

However, he was quick to add that government is in consultation with stakeholders in the education sector to fade the double-track system in some schools that have given indications of a positive outlook in terms of infrastructure.

“For some schools, it is going to be faster. Even before the lockdown, there were about 15 schools that had been taken off double-track…by the time the new academic year starts, a number of schools will be taken off double track,” he said.

The Free SHS policy was implemented in September 2017, shortly after the Akufo-Addo-led government assumed office.