Mahama commissions Paga SHS E-Block, promises facilities to end double-track by 2027

President John Dramani Mahama, during his Resetting Ghana Tour in the Upper East Region, unveiled the E-Block at Paga Senior High School (SHS) in Kassena-Nankana West District. President Mahama emphasized that improving quality and access to education at all levels, including secondary education, is a major policy under the Resetting Ghana Agenda.

He assured the community that the government would provide the school with a 60-seater bus, two dormitories, and a dining hall. Prior to their tenure, feeding Senior High School students was a significant issue, but he stated that this challenge had largely been resolved, with improved food quantity and quality. President Mahama revealed that when he first took office, he initiated the E-Block concept to increase secondary education access, recognizing that the existing 500+ secondary schools were insufficient to accommodate the expected student population under the Free SHS program.

Despite initial resistance, his administration has accelerated the construction of 200 new E-Blocks to prevent the double-track system. He assured that by 2027, there would be no double-track system in any secondary school in Ghana, as all students would attend and leave school simultaneously. The President also announced that the government would allocate GH¢3 billion through the Secondary Education Transformation for Access, Relevance, and Results for Jobs (STARR-J) project to expand secondary education, including the construction of 30 new schools in high-population-density areas in the upcoming budget.