Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has announced plans by the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, to undertake a major procurement of furniture for selected Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country.

The intervention is aimed at helping schools with adequate classroom infrastructure but insufficient furniture to transition from the double-track system to a single-track arrangement.

Mr Iddrisu explained that some schools have enough classrooms and other facilities to accommodate students under a single track but are unable to do so because of shortages of desks and other essential furniture.

He said addressing the gap would immediately increase the number of students the schools can accommodate at a time.

“There are many schools that if we provided them with furniture, we can take them off double track and we will do that. We will undertake a major procurement of furniture to fix that,” he said.

The Education Minister made the disclosure during a surprise monitoring visit to selected schools in the Western Region, including Tarkwa Senior High School, as part of efforts to assess school conditions and identify challenges affecting teaching and learning.

At Tarkwa SHS, Mr Iddrisu identified inadequate furniture as one of the factors keeping some schools on the double-track arrangement despite having sufficient classroom space.

He said the government had identified schools where furniture shortages limited their ability to admit and accommodate students under a single-track system.

The planned procurement is therefore expected to complement existing infrastructure and support the government’s efforts to improve access to quality secondary education while progressively reducing reliance on the double-track system.