The Executive Director of education think tank, Africa Education Watch doubts the double-track system being run across Senior High Schools will be phased out this year.
Speaking in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Asare explained that the Senior High School infrastructure projects started by government in a bid to end the system have been affected by the country’s liquidity situation.
“When the double-track system was announced in 2018, government said that it was going to run for five years. Unfortunately, efforts to end the double track have brought financial stress. Ending the double track means putting up more infrastructure. Government went for a loan, the cedi equivalent of 1.5 billion dollars, and later converted it into a bond. 3 years into the loan, only about 3.2 million dollars has been disbursed.”
“Last year, about another 1.2 billion dollars was supposed to be raised from the bond. But then two things happened last year, the first was high levels of inflation, especially in the construction sector, coupled with the low demand for bonds. This means that financing undoing infrastructure projects across SHSs will be difficult. This means that the double-track system may go on for some time until we see an improvement in the liquidity situation.”
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 high school education.
