Minister for Education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, has announced plans for a major procurement of furniture for selected Senior High Schools (SHSs) across Ghana, explaining that some schools have sufficient classroom infrastructure to operate a single-track system but continue to run double-track due to inadequate desks and other furniture for students.
Speaking on an interview addressing the issues of the double-track system, Iddrisu made the disclosure as part of broader efforts by the Ministry to assess prevailing conditions in schools and identify challenges affecting teaching and learning, particularly as government works to improve access to quality secondary education nationwide.
According to the Minister, providing affected schools with the necessary furniture would immediately increase their capacity to accommodate students without requiring continued reliance on separate academic tracks, a system introduced years ago to manage overcrowding but widely criticised for disrupting academic calendars and reducing instructional time.
“There are many schools that if we provided them with furniture, we can take them off double track, and we will do that, we will undertake a major procurement of furniture to fix that,”
Hon. Iddrisu
Joint Ministry Collaboration on Procurement
Addressing the matter further, Iddrisu explained that shortage of furniture remained one of the key factors preventing certain schools from fully transitioning away from the double-track arrangement, despite having adequate physical classroom space to support a single-track system.
He indicated that government had specifically identified schools where classroom infrastructure exists, but where furniture shortages continue to limit their ability to admit and accommodate the full complement of students under a single-track schedule.
According to the Minister, the planned furniture procurement intervention will be undertaken by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, reflecting the cross-ministerial coordination required to mobilise the necessary budgetary resources for the exercise.
He explained that this targeted intervention is specifically intended to accelerate efforts to end the double-track system in schools that already possess adequate classroom infrastructure but continue to be constrained by insufficient furniture to accommodate all their students simultaneously.
The Minister’s remarks suggest that government’s approach to phasing out double-track scheduling is being pursued on a school-by-school basis, prioritising institutions where a single, relatively straightforward intervention.
He said Furniture procurement, will yield an immediate shift toward single-track operation, rather than waiting for broader, more capital-intensive infrastructure projects to be completed nationwide.
This targeted strategy appears designed to deliver faster, more cost-effective progress on reducing double-track scheduling in specific cases, even as larger infrastructure expansion projects, including new school construction, continue to progress on a longer timeline.
Continued Government Focus on Double-Track Phase-Out
The announcement adds to ongoing double track commitments to eventually phase out the double-track system entirely, a policy shift that has been previously discussed by various education stakeholders.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), which has called for double-track to remain in place only until sufficient infrastructure exists to support a full transition.
With the furniture procurement exercise now formally announced, attention will likely turn to how quickly government identifies and resources the specific schools eligible for this intervention, and how soon affected institutions can expect to transition off the double-track system as a direct result of improved furniture availability.
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