The Managing Editor for the Custodian Newspaper, Awudu Mahama has insisted that inadequate contact hours between teachers and students existed prior to the free Senior High School policy which birthed the double-track system.
According to him, time has always been a challenging and scarce resource for students and teachers in Senior High Schools.
He made this statement in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show. He said, “There will not be enough contact hours for students in every school. And even with the advent of technology, we shouldn’t be complaining about contact hours.”
Awudu made mention that during his time in high school at Tumu, the same issue with limited contact hours existed and his teachers used extra classes to solve this. “We used lanterns to learn back then and the only generator was powered on Saturdays. Lesson hours at the time were less and there were extra classes done for students which complemented their regular study times. We have always had time as a challenge.”
He advised the Ghana Education Service (GES) and teachers in Senior High Schools (SHS) to be effective with the little contact hours they have with students.
The Managing Editor for the Custodian Newspaper argued that there can be two groups of students with the first batch receiving 5 hours of teaching from their teachers with the second group receiving 10 hours of teaching. But it will be no surprise for the former group to use their time judiciously and excel than the latter.
“So it not about the time, but the quality of tuition and help students get,” he stated.
The Free Senior High School [Free SHS] education policy in Ghana was a government initiative introduced in the 2017 September presidential administration of President Nana Akuffo-Addo.
At the start of the initiative, these Senior High Schools recorded a spike in student intake which was more than the schools could manage with their existing facilities.
The double-track system was introduced by the government in order to enable various Senior High Schools to take in more students and ensure that all students have access to a Senior High School education.
The Double Track System is in two sessions, thus The Green Track and The Gold Track. The Green Track represents the first batch of students who would go to school for a semester and are later followed by the Gold Track students who would continue after students of the green track session have vacated on the academic calendar.
When this system was introduced, many opposed and are still opposing the system insisting, it reduces contact hours between the students and their teachers.
By: Joel Sanco