The Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak has questioned the governing NPP’s silence on ending the double-track system which was introduced in 2018 to cater for excess enrollment after the implementation of Free SHS.
According to him, teaching and learning cannot be improved in the second cycle institutions if the “dreaded and obnoxious” system, which allows some students to stay in school while others wait their turn, still exists with its numerous disadvantages.
The call “to see the demise of the double-track system with alacrity is because of how negatively it’s affecting teaching and learning,” Dr Apaak wrote in a Facebook post.
Highlighting some of the issues of the double-track system, he explained that it has a haphazard calendar, where reopening dates for one track are sometimes hurriedly postponed to the disadvantage other students.
Dr. Apaak alleged that parents are footing the cost of elective textbooks because “government has refused to fund the cost of these books as part of the free SHS policy.”
He also complained of the long vacations and the enormous pressure on non-teaching staff, especially the kitchen and administrative staff, headmasters, senior housemasters, and housemasters, who hardly go on any vacation.
“President Akufo-Addo, who introduced the double-track system, because he failed to anticipate the need for infrastructure, has provided no timelines nor clear plan on how to end it,” Dr Apaak wrote.
Concluding his argument, the MP for Builsa South used his platform to applaud the NDC’s flagbearer John Dramani Mahama for his commitment to ending the system in his first year if voted into power on December 7.
He stated that, Mr. John Mahama has plans to invest heavily in the educational sector to improve the infrastructure needs in existing schools and establish new Senior High Schools to contain the numbers.
“No doubt, this continues to be reassuring, welcome, and refreshing news to stakeholders in education; students, teachers, parents, think-tanks,” Dr Apaak added.
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