The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has entreated Ghanaians to embrace the double track system, which is an innovation to help absorb more children into schools as the numbers keep increasing at the second-cycle institutions.

The programme set to begin in senior high schools this month, September, according to Dr Bawumia can be likened to multiple church services for Christians as a strategy to reach out to a larger population and also deal with lack of space.

“The churches have thought us that if you have one church building and you have many churchgoers you can have one service at 7:00 am and the second service at 9:00 am and they will all still get the word of the lord. So we are using an innovative means to bring in the double track system,” he added.

Speaking at this year’s Oguaa Fetu Afahye at Cape Coast, Dr. Bawumia used the occasion to affirm government’s resolve to empower her citizens through quality education.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has begun recruitment of graduate teachers for the Senior High Schools as part of its arrangement for the take-off of the double track system.

It is however not clear the number of teachers the GES is recruiting to beef up the programme.

Ignore the Pharisees – Akufo-Addo

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reiterated the commitment of his government to ensuring that the double-track school calendar, which will be implemented in September 2018 for some Senior High Schools in the country, is a success.

“We are going to make sure it is a success. So, I am pleading with you, please ignore the Pharisees who are singing the ‘impossible’ tune, and stick with me. It will be a success,” according to President Akufo-Addo.

With 90,000 new entrants in 2017, and the number doubling to some 180,000 in September 2018, the President noted that “every child of school going age in Ghana will have the opportunity to go to school up to the Senior High School level, insisting “I intend to keep that pledge.”