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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that the opposition Democratic National Congress (NDC) is throwing dust in the eyes of Ghanaians by promising to abolish the “Double Track” system in less than a year if they come to power.
Mahama at a chiefs and farmers durbar in Fawohoyeden in the northern Asunafo district of the Ahafo region last week promised that within a year in office, he will eliminate the ‘double track’ system introduced by the government to ensure good operation of the Free SHS Program.
However, speaking at a press conference in Accra on Monday, October 12, 2020, PNP Communications Director Yaw Buaben Asamoa said that the country’s largest opposition party is only misleading Ghanaians to win votes. during the 2020 elections.
“Any promise made by the clueless NDC leadership to abolish the double track in seven months is unrealistic, shameless and hopeless,” Asamoa said.
According to him, it is obvious that the NDC does not understand the two-way system and therefore has no real commitment to the free SHS.
“They still cannot answer the question posed by their statements about education reform, that is, ‘whose child stays at home’, while they play pretending to cancel the double track.”
The Adentan Constituency deputy said that the free SHS through the ‘dual track’ system has increased enrollment in second cycle institutions, adding that the government is ready to invest more in education.
“Currently, our SHS population stands at around 1.2 million students, up from 800,000 at the beginning of the 2016/17 academic year. That is a massive jump.
“The nation should be proud of our mutual commitment to the success of getting so many of our children into high school who would otherwise be wallowing in despair at home, not because they do not qualify for SHS, but simply because through no fault of their own, their families are too poor to pass upper secondary school. “
Mr. Asamoa described the PNP’s flagship free SHS as “the changing fate” because it is the “largest and most far-reaching intervention of the Akufo-Addo administration.”
He said: “The data available between 2013 and 2016 indicates that, on average, 100,000 children, each year, passed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) but could not take their places in SHS, because they could not pay the fees, to even though they had the qualifications. This represented approximately 35% of the total number of children that had been placed.
“Of those who held their positions, 22% left, again for financial reasons.
“Free SHS, therefore, has been a huge boost for parents, students and the nation. The important pillars of the Free SHS program are access, quality and relevance ”.
“To address the increase in enrollment in the second year of FSHS due to the increase in candidates who had been at home due to lack of funds and who were seeking to benefit from the program, the Dual Track System was introduced in 2018 as an innovative intervention.
“This was to accommodate all successful candidates, with a clear 5-7 year deadline to phase out as more infrastructure was built in the roughly 400 schools that followed the dual track, out of a total of roughly 721 SHS in this country.
“In the past three years, more than 1,000 structures, including dormitories, classroom blocks, and labs are being delivered to SHSs across the country,” said Mr. Asamoa.
