The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) wants the government to suspend its ongoing process to implement the double-track system at the senior high school (SHS) level.
At a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, Executive Council Chair of the GNECC, Bright Appiah, the coalition said the fact that a similar system worked in the United States, Japan and Germany, were are advanced countries does not guarantee the success of the policy in Ghana.
The Coalition, made up of 360 institutions, has proposed to the government to pilot the system for at least a year before rolling it out nationwide.
“No country has ever implemented a free SHS policy where 70 per cent of students were boarders. In fact, the best practice worldwide is the day school approach to free secondary education.
“A 70 per cent day and 30 per cent boarding system will reduce the cost of financing secondary education by at least 50 per cent while reducing the pressure on existing infrastructure,” the Coalition avers.
The system
The double year-round system divides the entire student body and staff into two different tracks. So while one track is in school, the other is on vacation.
The rotation sequence will depend on the year-round calendar being used. In Ghana, the school calendar starts from September and ends in April with three different terms. The first term is from September to December, the second term starts in January and ends in April while the third term is from April/May to July.
Furthermore, every semester will be 80 days for the two tracks. For one semester, every track will be in school for 40 days then go for a break for 40 days. Teacher motivation has been increased from 20 hours for the year to 70 hours for the year. Teachers will be increased so every group goes on break with the track they teach.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) wants the government to proceed with caution by consulting stakeholders in education.
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