Free SHS: Government Cancels Double Track For This Academic Year Because Of Improved Infrastructure

• There won't be double-track this 2022/2023 academic year for the free Senior High School first-year students
• The Education Ministry explains that the limited infrastructure problem that triggered the the shift system has been dealt with
• The Education Ministry's PRO said some 1,400 infrastructure projects have been completed since 2018

The Ministry of Education has said free Senior High School (SHS) students will not go through the double-track shift system this academic year because of improved infrastructure.

The Ministry said first-year students will not go through the double-track for this 2022/2023 academic year.

The Education Ministry's Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, told Citi News the limited infrastructure problem that prompted the double-track system has been dealt with.

"In 2017, GETFund did an infrastructure review and realised that over 3,700 projects had been abandoned.

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"Just after last year, over 1,400 of these projects have been done so clearly the result of this is accommodation to a large extent. So that brings a significant improvement in the accommodation situation we've been talking about," Citi News quoted the PRO.

The novel shift system was introduced in 2018 to enable the then-nascent free SHS programme to prevent overcrowding and accommodate the increased enrolment for the secondary level.

When the government introduced the policy, it explained it was guided by the principle that "no qualified child should be left behind."

The Ministry of Education has explained that the benefits of the double track system the include the following:

• Contact hours between teacher and student will increase, enabling teachers to have more time to complete the syllabus.
• Schools will use the same infrastructure to enroll more students.
• Teacher vacation periods will increase (from 12 weeks to 16 weeks)
• The double-track school calendar will reduce congestion in schools and this will lead to a reduction in class sizes

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The double-track, also known as Year-Round Education (YRE) has been adopted by countries like the USA, Japan China, Australia, Brazil, France and Costa Rica.

Akufo-Addo's Luxury Travels: President Accused Of Returning To Expensive Private Jet Shuttles

President Nana Akufo-Addo has resumed his preference for expensive and luxurious private jet travels, opposition MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has disclosed.

In a post on Facebook, the North Tongu MP said flight tracking details of President Akufo-Addo's latest travel to the United States of America and the United Kingdom show that the president used the very expensive LX-DIO private jet.

"With the pretentious notion that the obnoxious E-Levy has been secured to rake in more revenue to finance his lavish indulgences, and after hurriedly granting a presidential assent of dubious validity, as President Akufo-Addo knows very well that 136 NPP MPs cannot purport to constitute a decision-making quorum; President Akufo-Addo is back to his old ways of Russian Oligarchic travels," the MP posted on Sunday.

Source: YEN.com.gh