Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education, on Friday cut the sod for work to begin on a GH¢309,582 three-storey school complex for Ayalolo Cluster of Schools in Accra.
The project would be replicated in 15 other public schools within the Accra metropolis as efforts to eliminate shift in the educational system.
Mr. Tettey-Enyo said the beneficiary schools had a population of about 160,000 pupils but could accommodate only 89,000 pupils at a time.
"Therefore the shift system was introduced in order not to deny the remaining 71,000 pupils who represented 44 per cent of the school population their right to education," he added.
However, Mr Tettey-Enyo observed that truancy and reduction in normal school hours from eight to five were some of the negative effects of the shift system in some schools.
He announced that the Ministry had allocated GH¢3,000.000 from the 2010 GETFund Financing Programme for the construction of more classrooms in urban areas to end the shift system.
The Minister of Education commended the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for the initiative and expressed hope that pupils affected by the shift system would begin normal tuition hours from next academic year.
Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, AMA Chief Executive, expressed appreciation to managements of institutions and organisations that
contributed towards the Metropolitan Endowment Fund, established in February 2010 for educational projects.
He announced that so far about GH¢173,758 and 7,860 dollars had been realised from the fund.