GES clarifies the SHS Double-Track Academic Calendar

The Ghana Education System (GES) has corrected some misconceptions surrounding the Double-Track School Calendar and the Semester System introduced at the beginning of the 2018/2019 academic year for Senior High Schools.

It said it was inaccurate for anybody to state that students under the Double-Track System were expected to spend only 81 days in a year of 365 days.

These were contained in a release signed by Ms Cassandra Twum Ampofo, Head of Public Relations Unit of GES.

Management stated that each academic year was made up of two semesters totalling eight (8) months of schooling or 162 Teaching Days.

“Teaching days is the number of days students will actually be in class during the year. This excludes weekends and public holidays. Teaching Days is a technical term not to be confused with calendar days which include weekends and public holidays,” it explained.

Students of the Double-Track (GREEN & GOLD) are expected to run three (3) academic years like any other second cycle student before writing their final examinations.

In effect, students on the Double-Track System will be expected to have 486 teaching days in their academic work before writing their final year exams and not 81 days.

The release said the introduction of the Semester System and the Double-Track School Calendar had increased the number of hours of instruction in an academic year for all students, hence the double-track system.

Under the previous trimester system, the total number of hours students spent in the classroom for one academic year was 1,080 hours, it noted.

It said with the new Semester system, the total number of hours students are expected to spend in the classroom for one academic year is 1,134 hours, an increase of 54 hours a year.

It is important, therefore, for the public as well as all stakeholders to adequately inform and educate themselves before making public comments on the Free Senior High School and the Double-Track System, the release emphasised