President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the proposed double intake of students for his flagship ‘Free SHS’ policy will start in September.
He said the new policy will allow a lot of students to access the programme.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on education at the Tamale SHS as part of his tour of the Northern Region last Sunday, the President said the 2018/19 academic year would witness a 31 per cent increase in the population of new students of about 472,000 entering SHSs and which had resulted in a deficit of some 183,000.
“Despite providing 96,403 mono desks, 33,171 pieces of dining hall furniture, 3,033 tables and chairs for teachers, 12,953 bunk beds, 4,335 student mattresses and 5,135 computer laboratory chairs to address the infrastructural deficit over the year, it has not been enough to address all issues of infrastructure,” he said.
The double track system, according to President Akufo-Addo, would create room to accommodate the increase in enrolment.
“It will reduce class sizes, increase the contact hours, as well as increase the number of holidays, and all this is going to be achieved with the existing infrastructure. So we are moving to this intervention to be able to accommodate this larger population of SHS students,” he explained further.
He, therefore, urged teachers, administrators, parent-teacher associations (PTA) and regional and district directors of education across the country to embrace the system and work to ensure its success.
