A former Deputy Education Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has blamed the lack of planning for the introduction of Double Track in Ghana’s Senior High Schools.

Speaking in what was described as a debate on the education sector in an interview on TV3 monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the North Tongu lawmaker said “Now you have a situation where you abandoned the schools, sat aloof, then September comes, you are exposed, there is congestion, parents are angry, students are complaining then you come up with double-track. The double track is an afterthought because of poor planning”.

He indicated that the introduction of the double-track system was a lazy man’s approach to addressing issues on congestion.

“The double-track is a lazy man’s approach. You have inherited Community Day schools, 125 which are being constructed. What do you do? Between January and September, learning from Professor Mills’ example you could have completed those schools.”

With some of these challenges in mind, the former Deputy Minister indicated that the NDC introduced the progressively free Senior High School education to afford them the opportunity to handle some of these shocks before totally free education would have been introduced.

“That was why we were doing progressively free SHS, building the schools and then taking care of the poorest of the poor because you are keeping an eye on quality .”

On his part, the current Deputy Education Minister believes that the Ghanaian child deserves education because that the only way issues of inequality in society can be addressed and reduced to the barest minimum in the country.

Using the findings on double track from renowned Brookings Institution, an American research group founded in 1916 on Think Tank Row and based in Washington, D.C as a basis for argument, Dr. Adu Twum who is also a Member of Parliament said “what we need to do in order to transform this nation is to make sure education takes its rightful role in the socio-economic transformation process. But for education to take its rightful role and become fit for the purpose you have to look at what Brookings Institutions suggested”.

“They suggested that if you don’t want your nation to wait for 126 years then you have to leapfrog inequality, which means you for best practices that will allow you to do more with less.”