This would enable all students to participate in all activities, Mrs Mary Owusu Achiaw, the Ashanti Regional Director of Education, has assured.

She gave the assurance in answer to a question posed at an educational forum to find out whether or not that aspect of the educational calendar, was not going to suffer with the implementation of new system.

Mrs Owusu Achiaw said the various sporting events such as the inter-schools and colleges athletics as well as school cultural activities, was not going to change as being speculated by a section of the public, but a special arrangement would facilitate the participation of the out-of-school stream as well.

The Regional Director emphasised that all the two tracks of the system - christened green and gold - would have the same benefits, urging fresh students to welcome whichever track they were placed unto.

The forum was organised by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCES) in the Ashanti, on the Double track System, on Thursday.

The aim was to give the MMDCEs a first-hand information and in-depth knowledge of the new educational system, as key stakeholders of the programme.

The Regional Education Director said the new system beginning on Tuesday, September 11, was not permanent, but an intervention to enrol more qualified students into the Senior High Schools.

“It will also allow for increased contact hours between students and teachers, while also giving the teachers more time to complete their syllabi as well as reduce congestion in classroom due to reduction in class size,” she said.     

She said this year of the 521,170 registered candidates, 490,514 candidates qualified to be placed by the Computerised School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) and that infrastructure expansion adding that about 13,000 new places have been created for SHS students across the country.was also underway to be able to absorb all students.

This, she said, has been made possible with the completion of 14 Skills for Employment Investment Programme (SEIP) E-Block schools, bringing the total number of E-Blocks completed in the past two years across the country to 28.

Mrs Owusu Achiaw revealed that since the implementation of the Free SHS last year, enrolment trends had increased drastically.

She said the 2015 and 2016 had 299,649 and 308,799 respectively as compared to the figure 361,171 that enrolled last year.

The new system, she believed would make the educational system in the country successful since countries including Japan, China, Brazil, Costa Rica and Kenya which had already adopted this system, chalked great successes.

Madam Elizabeth Agyemang, Deputy Ashanti Region Minister, said the government’s aim of moving from the three school term to two was laudable and must be embraced by all for its accomplishment.

She assured that all stalled GET Fund projects would be attended to prevent further discrepancies in the operation of the new system.