Double-Track never affected the quality of SHS education

Recent claims by the Minister of Education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, that the double-track system reduced contact hours and compromised the quality of senior high school education are not only misleading but also unsupported by evidence. It is important that as a nation, we approach discussions about educational policy with facts rather than politics.

The double-track system, introduced in 2018 alongside the Free Senior High School policy, was not an arbitrary choice. It was a pragmatic and necessary intervention designed to absorb the historic surge in enrollment that accompanied the implementation of Free SHS. At the time, available classroom space could accommodate only 277,537 students, while expected enrollment was 472,730. This left a staggering deficit of almost 182,000 seats.

Without the double-track intervention, many of these students—an estimated 11.5 percent in the Northern sector and 35 percent in the Southern sector—would have been excluded from secondary education simply because there was no space for them. That would have been an unconscionable denial of opportunity. Suggesting that the quality of education was impaired as a result of the double-track system is, therefore, misleading.

On the contrary, it must be noted that the system opened access to high-performing Category A schools for students from rural communities and inner cities, giving them opportunities that would have otherwise been beyond their reach.

Far from reducing contact hours, the double-track system actually increased annual instructional time from 1,080 hours to 1,134 hours. It also preserved the 180-day instructional calendar that had long defined the structure of SHS education. Suggesting that contact hours were reduced is therefore not only inaccurate but unfair to the hardworking teachers and administrators who ensured that teaching and learning thrived under the system.

The outcomes speak for themselves. Records from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) reveal that the double-track era coincided with the best academic performances Ghana had recorded in more than 15 years. Over 60 percent of graduates qualified for admission into tertiary institutions, and Ghana produced the best WAEC candidates in the West African sub-region for four consecutive years. These achievements cannot be reconciled with the claim that double-track diminished quality.

It is worth noting that the double-track was always intended as a temporary measure. By 2021, it had been successfully phased out and replaced with the transitional calendar system that remains in operation today. Its legacy, however, remains clear: it expanded access, improved outcomes, and ensured that no child was left behind because of infrastructural limitations.

As stakeholders in education, we have a duty to uphold the truth. Policy debates must be grounded in data, not political expediency. The Free SHS and double-track interventions transformed lives and opened doors for hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian youth. To misrepresent their impact is to distort our collective progress.

By: Yaw Opoku Mensah, Spokesperson for Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum

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