The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has described as impressive the performance of the pioneering students of the Double Track System introduced in 2018 into the nation’s Senior High School system as a leapfrogging strategy.
He explained that an account of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) result which has just been released by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) attest to the fact that the students did very well although many critics of the concept doubted the quality of education being offered to the students.
Speaking to the media in Accra, Dr Adutwum was particularly excited because more than 50 per cent of the students passed in all core subjects.
Commendation
The Education Minister commended the management of GES for its role and effort put in to ensure that the students stayed in school to prepare for the examination despite the invasion of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also lauded all other stakeholders who contributed in diverse ways to ensure that teachers and non-teaching staff were provided with the right resources which enabled them to work well.
The Education Minister hinted that the government has initiated moves to improve the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) across the country.
He mentioned for instance the construction of 35 STEM SHS across the country which has been captured in the 2022 budget statement as some of the measures that had been put in place to increase the number of students pursuing STEM in all schools.
Dr Adutwum also assured the nation of government’s readiness to continue to put in place the right measures to improve education development in the country.
He stated that everything possible would be done to ensure that the right resources would be provided to enhance effective teaching and learning in all schools irrespective of where it was located.
Results specific
Out of the 446,352 candidates comprising of 221,439 males and 224,913 females who sat for the WASSCE, 238,819 students representing 54.08 scored A1-C6 in the English Language as against 57.34 per cent in 2020.
A total of 238,539 students representing 54.11 per cent also scored A1-C6 in mathematics as against 56.71 per cent in 2020.
The results for Integrated Science was however different as 289,329 students representing 65.70 per cent scored A1-C6 in 2021 as against 52.53 per cent in the previous year.
On Social Studies, the results also showed an improvement from 64.31 per cent in 2020 to 66.03 per cent in 2021.
Background
The introduction of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) system in 2017 by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government led to many people criticizing the government for lowering the education standard to the huge intake.
After the rollout of the FSHS concept, the government introduced interventions such as the training of all mathematics and science teachers in all SHS, the distribution of core textbooks to all students and the training of all core subject teachers among other interventions to boost effective teaching and learning.
The introduction of the double-track system led to increased enrolment as many more students were enrolled into SHS in all regions across the country.
