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Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Deputy Minister of Education, has called on parents to invest in their wards education and to show interest in their activities to guide their future aspirations.

Dr Adutwum advised parents to liaise with teachers to know the performance of their children in schools and offer the needed help to improve their weaknesses to success.

The Deputy Minister said this on Wednesday in Accra at an educational forum on free Senior High School organised by the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations.

The forum was on the theme: “Free SHS: The Role of Parents in the Sustainable Implementation of the Policy.”

He said the free SHS policy was introduced to cater for the increase in enrolment and ensure that no qualified child was left out of admission.

“When you look at the WASSCE year in and out, about 65 percent do not get the credit that takes them to tertiary that tells you, you don’t have a system that is functioning well.

“The school system is doing what people call “chew, pour, pass and forget” and I call that 'chew, pour, fail and forget'. Children are not retaining the learning in such a way that when it is exams time they don’t have to memorize and they can still do well,” he added.

Dr Adutwum said the double system was introduced to solve the problem of congestion by admitting more students without any conditions, adding that it was a smart approach by government to end the cut offs during admission of SHS students.

He explained that the double-track system divides the entire student body and staff into two different tracks so that while one track is in school, the other is on vacation.

He said the double-track system was a temporal measure to mitigate the overcrowding, promising to put up more schools to deal with the situation soon.

Dr Adutwum dismissed suggestions that the implementation of the double-track system would negatively affect quality of SHS education in the country.

“The country already has a terrible school system and the introduction of the double-track system is one of the measures being implemented by government to solve it”.

He called for the introduction of creative arts in SHS to help harness the talents of the students and urged Parent-Teacher Associations to support government to fully implement the free SHS.

Mr Alexander Yaw Danso, the President of the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, said the introduction of the free SHS was an opportunity for parents to be involved in their wards education through effective supervision at home and support in the provision of infrastructural facilities.

He said the Association had provided monumental structures, means of transportation and welfare support in many SHSs and introduced student accident and welfare policy, a life assurance policy for second cycle students with Saham Life Insurance.

He urged government to address challenges militating against the success of the free SHS programme, including congestion in dormitories and classrooms, in adequate furniture in classrooms and dining halls and library space, and inadequate teaching and learning materials.