Former President John Mahama says he will complete the 200 community day schools he begun in his first term and end the double-track system if voted into power in the ensuing December polls. He made these comments at the official introduction of his running mate, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman to the National Chief Imam in Accra.
However, Press Secretary to the Minister of Education, Rodney Nkrumah Boateng has dismissed this comment.
According to him, the government is currently working on phasing out the double-track system for some Senior High Schools in the country hence, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) promise to cancel the system if elected into power is immaterial.
Mr Boateng further stressed that government has allocated about seven years to phase the system and the appropriate stuctures have been put in place to ensure a successful phase-out.
“The double-track is not expected to be a permanent system. It was in response to a particular need and that intervention is supposed to be of a 5-7 year duration. The idea is that the double-track is only applicable in about 400 out of the 721 schools that have a high demand…We have put up various infrastructure in the schools where there is oversubscription which has led to double-track and as the infrastructure comes on stream, we take them off the double track,” he said.
Mr. Nkrumah Boateng said the government has so far constructed about 280 structures out of the more than 900 classrooms, dormitories and science blocks which it has set out to complete in various Senior High Schools to be able to phase out the system.
“The others are at various stages of completion… When the former President says he will abolish double track, he is saying what we have been saying all along,” he said.
He insisted that John Mahama’s promise should be ignored on the grounds of his government’s failure to complete the 200 community day Senior High Schools he promised.
“How immediate is his (John Mahama’s) plan? We are talking about a government that gave itself four years to complete 200 community day schools… How many did they complete within the four years?”
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
