THE DOUBLE TRACK SYSTEM: A NECESSARY EVIL.

With a few hours to the implementation of the Double Track System, members of the general public are concerned about the success or otherwise of it. Either the public or the executors of this educational policy are unsure of the exact definition of this nomenclature. Teachers do not know the form or shape in which this Programme will take. The Double Track System is by far, one of the many concomitants of the Free SHS promised by the ruling government. Because of desperation for political power the NPP promised Ghanaians Free SHS and lost sight of the fact that there would be a need for facilities to accommodate the surging numbers of students who would be graduating from the Junior High School to the Senior High School. In the

Akufo Addo and Bawumia unveiling the Free SHS logo

2017/18 academic year, 362, 118 students were admitted into the Senior High School. This figure is expected to significantly increase for the 2018/19 academic year. The government has therefore realised an urgent need to fashion out measures to tackle this desperate situation. And, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. As the student population increases in several folds at the Senior High School level, there should be an urgent step to manage the multiplying numbers with the less infrastructure and resources at our disposal, hence the Double Track System.

Education over the world does experience reforms of one form or another. Educational reforms could be structural, content-based or both. In the past, there had been numerous educational reforms in Ghana. Most of those reforms were basically about improving content of the curriculum. Ghanaians are about witnessing yet another changes in our educational system, i.e, the Double Track Educational System. 

Every new programme abounds with teething problems and the Double Track System will not be an exception. Government communicators in their quest to sell the idea of the Double Track System to Ghanaians, mentioned how this system has been tried, tested and proven effective and successful in many countries including the USA , Australia, Costa Rica, Japan and Kenya. But, per available information, Kenya has no such educational system. Even the US does not practice it in all the states.

Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education

Unlike the Traditional Academic Calendar or Single Track System, the Double Track System divides the student body into two separate streams and both run shift with different sets of teachers but equal school days and vacation duration. Though civil society groups such as IMANI Ghana, ISODEC and teacher unions are vehemently opposed to the Double Track System. It has its pros and cons. We as a state have to give the government some benefits of the doubt. This is a temporal but an urgent measure that we cannot do otherwise than to embrace. I believe readers will concur with me that, when the president promised us free SHS, we did not have cause to question him. We bought into his idea an gave him our mandate overwhelmingly. He started the Free SHS last academic year and has seen the need to introduce the Double Track System so that JHS does not become a terminal point of education in Ghana. And after all, the Double Track System is a report of a commission which has been gathering dust on the shelf since 2008. I think this is the right time for us to utilise it. It is going to be piloted for only seven years by which, adequate infrastructure will be put in place. 

The system is to be operated on a semester basis as it is at the university level. But here, instead of students spending 4 months or 16 weeks in school at a go, they will be split into two streams (tracks) and each will spend 2 months/8 weeks. Each stream of students will do 4 months or 16 weeks per academic year. In all, 400 schools have been selected out of the 696 public Senior High schools for the Double Track System. Students who have gained admission into these schools through either the computerised placement or self placement have been categorised into two i.e., the Green Track and the Gold Track. The Green Track is the first batch to start the academic year. They will report to school on 11th September whilst the Gold Track goes to school on 8th November, 2018. They will each spend 8 weeks (41 days) in school. While the Green Track is in session, the Gold Track will be on vacation and vice versa. What is not clear is that, whether after the end of the first semester, the two tracks will go on vacation or the Green Track will be in session to begin the second semester. 

Senior High entrants

The Double Track System may not be the best of arrangements. Many people have expressed concerns about the success of this Programme. Though some of these concerns or lack of confidence in the Double Track System is pure hypothesis, but others are premised on empirical evidence. On a rather broader consultative purpose, the government ought to still take the concerns of the citizenry into consideration in its implementation process so as to guarantee quality education, as well as, to achieve the best out of this system. As I said, the concerns of the Double Track System are many and varied. In this write-up,  I would touch on a few by looking at its merits and demerits.

First and foremost, loss or reduction in contact days. The trimester academic calendar at the SHS usually has 12 to 14 weeks per term where students spend about 98 days in school with 70 instructional days (Mondays - Fridays). The semester academic calendar has about 16 weeks or 112 days but in the case of the Double Track System, these 16 weeks are to be shared between two streams of students. That is, the Green Track and the Gold Track. This means each stream has 8 weeks of school session including weekends. Two (2) months or 8 weeks will give us 56 days minus weekends (16 days). So, in effect, students will have 40 instructional days in school. If holidays and sports festivals are factored into this computation, then, teaching days will be far less than the 40 days. 

Again, this Double Track System can bring about disproportional or uneven learning opportunities depending on weather and climate conditions. We are all aware of the Ghanaian disease which has gradually graduated to a sub-culture. Anytime it rains in the early hours of the day in Ghana, a lot of workers take that day off and same happens in schools too. The vagaries of the weather especially in the wet seasons can have a negative impact on students in terms of attendance when a particular track has its turn in the rainy season. Classes will be often disorganised. This will surely disadvantage that track.  Aside this, governments over the years have always delayed payment of feeding grants to the SHSs. This could affect any of the two tracks in which turn this occurs.

Furthermore, there is a concern of segregation of both teachers and students in the same school. This can create some line of separation and detachment between students and teachers in the same school. This will breed insubordination, disrespectfulness, disobedience and defiance among students towards teachers who happened not to be teaching a particular track. This can lead to disinterest of teachers towards students' academic welfare. This is the situation in many cases at the Basic Schools where the shift or cluster system is practised. Also, there could be lapses in internal communications and plans between head(s) and staff, disagreements among different track staff, etc.

Another concern about the Double Track System which is quite controversial is that, teachers who will be teaching in these double track schools will be taking salary for no work done. We are told about some 8,860 teachers are to be recruited to augment teachers who are already teaching at Senior High Schools. This means that, over 16000 teachers will be withdrawing salaries for every two months for doing nothing. Teachers under the Double Track System will go on recess with students for 2 months in turns. While teachers wait for their turn, the state will be paying them for no actual work done. 

Moreover, learning schedules will be disrupted and students will become rusty and dormant due to long vacation periods. Students on holidays might be occupied with activities that are unrelated to their studies. For instance, students who have access to IT gadgets such as laptops, tablets and smartphones might be grossly engaged in browsing and chatting with friends. Also parents or guardians will engage children in errands or chores. This will make students forget their books and their learning flow will be interrupted. This will make them forget of all what they were taught in school and teachers' efforts will be in vain. Students themselves without strict supervision and parental guidance will also loiter and waste away their vacation periods instead of keeping to their books. Already, social media is considered as a contributory factor to the lowering standards of students' performance at the SHS. Students on vacation may tend to distract those in session. In this day of social media, students on vacation will like to be in touch with their friends in school. They may do this through chatting with them on social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. This will gradually shift the focus of those students from studies. 

In addition,  the Double Track System has a tendency to disrupt family schedules and lost of family ties for families that might have children on different tacks. Families might not be able to hold functions or occasions with a full participation of the family members. For example, families which usually go outings, shopping, picnics and birthday parties will have some of the children missing out in these moments of union ship.

More so, student friendship network can impact on attendance and academic performance. If students have school friends on a track rather than theirs, learning could be impeded during school session as friends on vacation distract those in school. Or, those in school will be affected by the absence of their study mates. This could lead to truancy and absenteeism amongst students.

Last but not least, the same facility serving different sets of students all year round will have too much pressure on it. When this happens over a given period of time, it will bring about wear and tear on the facility. Over utilisation of school buildings will cause the structure to develop some cracks. And as Ghanaians, we are noted for lack of maintenance culture. The Double Track System might lead to eventual collapse of educational facilities.

On the other hand, the Double Track System comes with some positives could be proven to be effective and efficient. Arguments can be made the following possible positives of the Double Track System.

An Overcrowded Classroom

First, the Double Track System is a strategy to remedy the issue of overcrowding in our Senior High Schools. Some Senior High Schools more often than not, over admit students due to the large numbers of students graduating from Junior High Schools. Heads of some Senior High Schools complained bitterly about inadequate facilities in their schools. Most of these schools usually convert their assembly or dining halls into dormitories in the nights. This problem was highly felt last academic year because of the introduction of free SHS. When the Double Track System is enrolled, it will address this overcrowding problem. The same facilities will be used to serve large number of students at different periods of time within the same academic year. Again, this will bring about increased enrollment per facility. That is, each school can admit double of its capacity.

Second, the Double Track System could be cost effective in terms of educational inputs, resources and personnel (not in terms of educational quality). The same number of teachers could be tasked to handle the two tracks in a school. The same resources in science and computer laboratories and teaching and learning aids in classrooms could be used by both tracks in the school. To add to this, the Double Track System will create job opportunities to the teeming unemployed graduates who are qualified to teach at the Senior High School.

Third, the Double Track System can bring about a lot of improvement in students' academic performance and quality in teaching. Due to long vacation periods, teachers will have ample time to plan and prepare well for lessons. This will as well afford teachers the opportunity to employ best pedagogies in their teaching to alleviate learning disabilities or difficulties among students. At the same time, the long vacation periods will enable non-performing students or slow learners to also have a lot of time to backup. 

Fourth, the Double Track System will ensure healthy competition between tracks. In schools where there will be having Double Track System, students will compete each other. This will rope in teachers to also compete against each other in a case where there are different set of staff handling the two tracks.

Fifth, under the Double Track System, teachers can supplement their income by teaching more sessions or doing extra teaching outside their schedule. ( Maybe this is the best time for some of us to teach in the Senior High School). Teachers who will not be teaching in both tracks can engage themselves in other money making ventures to support their income. 

Lastly, there is a history of student riots and hooliganism among Senior High School students in Ghana. we have witnessed a number of student riots in Senior High Schools in the past. School authorities have not been able to calm students in such times. Most often, student demonstrations and rioting get out of hand because of the rowdy nature and great population of students in our Senior High Schools. Due the manageable numbers of students under the Double Track System, student demonstrations and vandalism will be controlled at any given time. 

President Mahama's Community Day Senior High School

To conclude, I think whilst this arrangement is in place for the meantime, the government should take urgent steps to build more facilities to accommodate the surging numbers of students into the Senior High Schools. The erstwhile NDC government under president Mahama promised to build 200 Community Day Senior High Schools. About 46 of these were completed and commissioned. The rest of the schools were at various stages of construction before the NDC was shown the exit.These facilities should not be left to become a white elephant.  In order to solve  the infrastructural deficit at the Senior High level, the Akufo-Addo administration should ensure the completion of these projects. The NPP government could even expand and convert some of them to boarding facilities if they would not be able to build new schools.

Another proposal is that, the government should invest in Senior High School education by training and developing the human resource and capacity of teachers. There should be regular 'Inset' Programmes and workshops. Best practices in education should also be adopted to achieve the needed results. Again, a budgetary allocation or a dedicated amount from the getFund should be made available solely for the provision of and equipping resource centres, workshops, libraries and laboratories in the Senior High Schools. Most importantly, the ongoing recruitment of teachers for the Double Track System should not be based on political affiliations or 'who you know'. The government should appoint competent and committed teachers into the teaching field. In all this, teachers' efforts must

be recognised and rewarded here and now.

Thnx!

Naa Gbewaah Sidiq's Folder.