President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Angel Carbonu has called for the abolition of the double track system in the second cycle institutions.
The double track system was introduced in 2018 by the government to create room to accomodate the high number of students expected to enrol in the senior high schools.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr. Carbonu lamented over the challenges being faced by teachers and staff of the various senior high schools running the double track system.
“The double track has brought about its attending challenges and problems especially to teachers. Teachers in schools were teaching across tracks and as a result most teachers in the senior high schools do not have holidays or rest periods. It’s not only teachers who have not rested, we are also talking about administrators and managers of education.”
He further called on the Ghana Education Service to revert the school term as the system is taking a toll on the health and work conditions of the teachers.
“The system we are running right now is putting undue burden on our teachers who are regularly going to the hospital for care and spending huge sums of their meagre salaries to cater for themselves. We call on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to revert the school term to three terms and change the period from one hour to forty minutes. They must also ensure that we have schools based on the promise they made that the double track was going to end within 5 years.”
The double track system was adopted in 400 senior high schools in 2018 and is still in operation. It involves two tracks of students (Gold track and green track) sharing the academic year in a system where one track attends school whilst the other stays on vacation.
The double track system also introduced the semester period, where instead of the previous three term periods within the year that the schools used to adopt, each academic year involves two semesters for each track.
Mr. Carbonu added his voice to many calls across the nation over the recent times where there has been resistance to this system. The appeals have been drawing attention to the alleged diminishing quality of education at the secondary level and overwork on teachers with payment of meagre salaries unable to compensate for their work.
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Story by: Awo Asantewaa Wiafe-Akenten | univers.ug.edu.gh
