Reversal of double track good but problematic

The ministry of education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) have reversed the double track for second and third years in most schools, and all first years going to secondary school this year will all be on a single track. This is welcome news on the surface, but on the various campuses and with some stakeholders, it is problematic.

We

Read full articlewill look at the implications of this reversal and the teething problems it will create for those who are at the center of it all.

Classroom and dormitory constraints

The Ghana education service has abolished the double track for each year's batch but has created another for different years. The system is structured such that there will be two batches on campus at the same time.

That is either form three and two or form three and one. The final year students have been maintained because of their preparations for final examinations, while the form twos and ones will be alternated.

As we speak currently, the three batches will be in school now. The form threes and twos are already in school, and the first-year students have joined them since February 4, 2022.

There will be challenges in classrooms, dormitories, and most especially in chairs for them to sit on.

A TV3 report on Tuesday, April 5, showed students sitting on plastic chairs during class hours. This is expected to get worse as more of the form ones report to school.

Teachers are not getting time to rest.

The current arrangement of reversing the double track has given a heavy task to the teachers. Teachers who teach students from form one through form three will no longer get their usual vacations.

This is because there will always be a batch on campus during the course of the academic year. This will make them overworked and productivity will be impaired.

In certain schools and subjects, it is not possible to streamline things for teachers to teach in only one year group. These teachers teach across the three year groups and will be the ones suffering the most.

The kitchen staff will be greatly affected. There will also be no vacation for them either. This will not be a good thing because students do not play with their food, and any lapse in that department will spell doom for all of us.

We want to use this medium to appeal to the Ghana education services to look into these lapses to help remedy the situation.