Paga: The government of Ghana is set to invest GHS3 billion in secondary education as part of its Strategic Secondary Education Transformation and Reform for Jobs (STAR-J) project. This significant investment aims to enhance and expand access to quality education for all Ghanaian children, addressing infrastructure deficits and eliminating the double-track system in senior high schools nationwide.
According to Ghana News Agency, President John Dramani Mahama announced this initiative during the commissioning of an E-Block facility at Paga Senior High School in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region. He emphasized that the government targets ending the double-track system by 2027 to ensure that students benefit from simultaneous school attendance, equal teacher-contact hours, and improved learning outcomes.
President Mahama highlighted that one of the challenges affecting Free Senior High School education was the reduced contact hours between students and teachers. By ending the double-track, the government aims to increase these contact hours, thereby enhancing student performance in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The STAR-J project will facilitate the construction of 30 new E-Block senior high schools across the country, particularly in high-population-density communities where they will serve as community-based schools. Furthermore, funds have been allocated in the 2026 budget to complete 30 previously abandoned E-Block projects initiated during Mahama's previous administration. He emphasized the importance of completing these projects to avoid wasting taxpayers' money.
Paga Senior High School is one of the projects being completed under this program. Previously, students had been using parts of the facility under challenging conditions. President Mahama instructed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to expedite the provision of necessary furniture and equipment to enable full operation of the school.
Additionally, the President announced that Paga Senior High School would become a boarding school by the 2027 academic year, with plans to construct dormitories and a dining hall. He also promised to provide a new 60-seater bus to the school, even before the completion of the boarding facilities.
President Mahama encouraged the school's management to strive for excellence and ensure that the infrastructure investment leads to improved academic performance, expressing his desire to see a 100 percent pass rate among the students.