More than 100 category ‘A’ and ‘B’ senior high schools will run the double-track system for first-year students. The decision was informed by the second wave of COVID-19, which has necessitated the observance of social-distancing protocols by students.
Most of the schools to be affected were those that were selected by a large number of BECE candidates. All first year students will be required to report to their schools between March 18 and 20 for registration and for academic work to begin for all of them on March 22, 2021. The GES is expected to communicate its intention to stakeholders today. The move will help minimise the spread of the virus, according to sources, who say the decision was taken after consultations among the Ministry of Education, the GES, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the National COVID.19 Team.
The schools will be granted the free hand to categorise their students under the Green and the Gold tracks.
Students in the Green Track and Single Track will be in school from March 22 until June 25, 2021. Those in the Gold Track will go on vacation from June 26 to August 31 to end the first semester.
New timetable designed in such a way that the number of students in a school at a given time would not pose any congestion or risk. It gave an assurance that running double track in those schools would not affect the contact hours in any way, explaining that such issues had been anticipated.