At least 100 new Senior High Schools will be "rolled out" by the first quarter of 2014, Deputy Education Minister Samuel Okudzeto has stated.

The rollout of the schools, he said, is in fulfilment of an election promise made by President John Mahama that 200 new SHS will be built within the four year mandate of his presidency.

The president said there would be 50 new SHSs each year for four years beginning from 2013 but none was built last year.

At a forum to assess one year  of President John Mahama's continuation of the Better Ghana Agenda, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said government could not execute the first 50 new SHS schools as promised by the government last year.

That notwithstanding, the deputy minister said that 2013 was used to thoroughly conduct a "technical assessment" of the project, as government went ahead to procure lands on which the schools would be built.

He said the policy was not merely a slogan to counter the free SHS promise made by the opposition New Patriotic Party but there is absolute justification for the 200 SHS.

He said there is currently only 800,000 spaces at the SHS level as against 1.4 million population at the primary school level.

And with government's new policy that no SHS should have more than 1,500 students, the need for more SHS is more crucial than ever, the minister intimated.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa also said the Education Ministry has begun a teacher rationalisation exercise that would redistribute trained teachers to all schools across the country.

According to him, there is growing perception that there is a shortage of trained teachers across the country but that cannot be true because there is evidence to show there is overstaffing in all the regions of the country.

The Deputy Education Minister said the "Volta Region for instance had 28,725 staff at post; excess staff 1,920; shortages of teachers in schools is 3,608. There were 244 schools without teachers. That is situation.

"There are 244 schools without teachers and yet there are excess staff of 1,920.

"So what we need in the Volta Region is not necessarily to send in new teachers but to redistribute the teachers," he added

He said the same story is replicated in the Eastern and Central Regions as well other parts of the country.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the rationalisation exercise has helped in removing over 2,913 ghost names from the payroll.

The minister also indicated the resit for BECE candidates will begin in 2015 and applauded the contribution of the West African Examination Council for the policy that would be implemented.

The Deputy Education Minister debunked the assertion that the education system is in crisis, noting that Ghanaians voted for quality, access and affordability of education as against the populist free education touted by the opposition NPP in the run-up to the 2012 elections.

He said government will make sure the people will not regret the decision.