Accra, Aug 26, GNA - All public basic schools in the Ashiedu Keteke Sub-Metropolitan Area are to get eight hours of tuition a day from the beginning of the academic year.

The Chairman of the Sub-Metropolitan District Council, Mr Adjebu Lamptey, told the GNA in an interview that this was in line with the initiative by the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Mr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, to end the shift system in basic schools in Accra.

Mr Lamptey said following an audit of school population in the area, it came out that some schools had less than 20 pupils in a class. Such classes would be merged with pupils who are running shift.

Where classes cannot be merged, structures have been identified for hiring to accommodate the schools until classroom blocks under construction are completed.

He said work on the four-storey Millennium School structures throughout the city is progressing and would be completed by the end of the year.

Mr Lamptey said the Junior High School at Adedenpo Cluster of Schools, which is under populated, would be merged with other schools to make room for schools that are running the shift system.

He said 26,000 pieces of school furniture were being produced for the additional classes and to enable the existing schools to enrol more pupils.

Mr Lamptey said the initiative to end the shift system would ensure social justice since such pupils who had only four hours of tuition a day took the same competitive examination with their counterparts who had eight hours of classroom work a day.