Ghana’s Double track System: Students afraid of impending exams

Due to the limited time, students of the double track system have to cover the syllabus, some students are fearful about their chances of passing their upcoming end of semester examination.
In September 2018, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) adopted the double track system for some 400 Senior High Schools in the country, to cater for the increased enrollment and infrastructural deficit brought on by its flagship policy, Free Senior High School.

The new programme creates a calendar of two semesters in a year for the SHS 1 class, containing 81 days per each semester and 41 days of vacation for a sandwich class.
Some students told Accra based Citi FM that the inadequate contact hours, coupled with the huge workload from their syllabus have made them ill-prepared to sit for the examination.
“I am somehow afraid because the teaching and learning days are inadequate. The teachers also go strictly to the syllabus where a topic can take two weeks for it to be fully treated. So, we are not able to cover anything,” one student said.
“We are not prepared. The topics are very broad to be completed in this short time. The teachers keep skipping the topics because of time,” another student added.