Free SHS: GES sets 2027 to end double-track system in public SHSs

The Ghana Education Service (GES) is collaborating with top university professors and the Minister of Education to end the double-track system in Senior High Schools by 2027, the Deputy Director-General for Quality and Access at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Munawaru Issahaque, said in an interview.

Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Channel One TV, Dr. Issahaque explained that the initiative aims to restore the traditional academic calendar and ease the burden on parents and students.

“We are very ready to reopen between October 18 and 20. We want our parents to also have some peace of mind. So, we have worked with key stakeholders behind the scenes to ensure that we revert the academic calendar and, with the Minister of Education’s approval, reverse the double-track system by 2027,” he said.

He said the automatic placement rate under this year’s Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) reached 82 percent, signifying successful placements for the majority of candidates.

“If we have about 600,000 candidates and almost 593,000 passed, it means they have a chance of being placed in one school or another,” the GES Deputy Director-General told Channel One TV in the interview.

Commenting on the reporting date for first-year Senior High School students, he said his outfit is fully ready to reopen Senior High Schools following the completion of the school placement and enrolment exercise.

He urged parents to make sure their wards are adequately equipped for the reopening by meeting all the prospectus requirements.

“We all want the best for our children. The system allows for seven school options, but many parents focus only on the first choice. That’s not a fair approach. Prepare your child to accept the school they are placed in and get ready to join their colleagues,” he advised.

In line with the GES official, the Minister in Charge of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, says the government, as part of key reforms in the country’s education sector, is taking steps to phase out or end the double-track system at the Senior High School level in 2027.

At an engagement with the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) members at a meeting held in Sunyani in the Bono Region, Haruna Iddrisu said the double-track system will be a thing of the past.

“We are working to revise the curriculum…If the government is to succeed in ending the double-track system, not later than Monday, you should have a board so that all expenditures are properly approved by the board.

We expect that by the year 2027, the double-track system will be a thing of the past,” the Education Minister told members of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) at the event.

The double-track system divides students into two tracks, thus the Gold track and the Green track, allowing one track to attend school while the other is on vacation to accommodate increased enrollment and reduce overcrowding.

The double-track system was introduced as part of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy in the 2018 academic year to address the challenges of increased enrollment and limited infrastructure capacity in various government second-cycle schools.