The Chairman for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education and Member of Parliament for Jaman North, Hon Stevens Siaka, has indicated that the Committee on Education will visit all the various selected Senior High Schools (SHS) for the phase one of the Double-Track System (DTS).
Mr. Siaka in his statement, pointed out that the Committee’s visit across the country will kick off on October 8, 2018.
Speaking to ghanajustice.com in an interview in Parliament, Mr. Siaka stated that the committee’s duty call is to monitor the progress of the Double-Track-System and report to parliament.
“We must know what is actually happening on the ground. We will go to the various schools and observe the level of progress of the system and report back to parliament”, he explained.
The Education Committee Chairman reiterated that the Education Ministry may be invited to address some matters of interest to the Committee if the need be, before the final report is compiled and presented at the Plenary for consideration.
On the challenges of the newly introduced system, Mr. Siaka admitted that the only difficulty of the Double-Track System is the placement of students to their various schools.
He however indicated that the situation of school placement has been in existence for a very long time and that, the Committee will streamline the posting structure to mitigate the situation.
Mr. Siaka lamented that “there is a perception and speculation out there that the Double-Track System will yield negative results. I don’t think the system is there to cause any difficulty”.
On the assessment of quality education in Ghana, Mr. Siaka averred that the Committee is to exercise oversight responsibility in the educational sector and that is its limit.
Mr. Siaka re-echoed that if the Committee discovers any foul-tasting condition in the educational sector, it would be drawn to the attention of the Education Ministry.
“The quality of education in Ghana is abysmally poor, so the Double-Track System is to check and improve the poor quality in the educational sector. Education in Ghana is currently not the best at all”, he added.
Mr. Siaka disclosed that 69 percent of students who complete the Senior High School (SHS) cannot further their education to the tertiary level.
In his concluding statement, Mr. Siaka expounded that the Double-Track System is not to compromise the education sector but to improve on the quality of education.
Commencement of Double-Track System
The implementation of the Double Track System in some 400 Senior High Schools in Ghana began on Tuesday, September 11, 2018.
The new system, which was created due to an increase in enrollment, is expected to create space to accommodate more students, reduce class size, increase contact hours and increase the number of holidays.
The government adopted the Double-Track System to cater for increased enrollment under its flagship free Senior High School programme, due to a deficit in infrastructure.
Modalities
Education Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, in an interview with ghanajustice.com said that only 400 out of the estimated 670 SHSs would run the Double-Track System for the 2018/2019 academic year.
He pointed out that over 8,000 teachers are being recruited to handle the sandwich classes so that teachers would not be deprived of their holidays.
Teaching hours are expected to increase from 1,080 hours per year under the current trimester system to 1,134 hours per year under the Double-Track System.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
