Speaking on Channel One TV’s Face to Face programme with Umaru Sanda Amadu on September 9, Dr. Tandoh highlighted that the system enabled over 1.27 million students to access classroom instruction.

“Had it not been for double-track, some 1,274,000 children would not have had a day to sit in front of a teacher,” he said.

Acknowledging criticism of the approach, he argued that its impact on learning outcomes and examination performance has validated the policy.

“We like to bastardise things. But I’m a big proponent of not throwing the baby away with the towel. Yes, you can talk about all the quality things everybody wants to focus on. But at the end of the day, learning outcomes are the by-products of education.

“The learning outcomes in terms of quality fly in the face of all the noise that has been made around double track. There has been vindication,” he said.

Dr. Tandoh pointed to Ghana’s dominance in the WASSCE Excellence Awards over the past five years as evidence of the system’s success:

“WASSCE has an excellence award. In 2020, the first, second, and third students in West Africa were Ghanaians. In 2021, first and third, the students were Ghanaians. In 2022, first and second, Ghanaians. In 2023, first and third in West Africa were Ghanaian students. In 2024, first, second and third students were Ghanaians,” he recounted.

Describing the double-track system as a “human intervention,” Dr. Tandoh acknowledged that challenges exist but stressed that it has achieved its core objective of widening educational access while maintaining quality outcomes.

“It’s a human intervention; we can always have challenges,” he said.