Overcoming challenges of the CSSPS
The call on all parents whose children are candidates in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to take a keen interest in the selection of senior high schools (SHSs) for their children is crucial if the problems associated with the placement system would be overcome for all fresh students to enter SHSs in September.
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Since the introduction of the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), BECE candidates and their parents have been left anxious for many weeks or even months trying to get the candidates placed in SHSs of their choice.
Interestingly, the CSSPS secretariat has pointed out that the delay associated with placement into SHSs has primarily been caused by errors on the schools selection forms submitted by candidates each year.
In the past, the secretariat got embarrassed when it inadvertently admitted girls to boys schools, and vice versa, as well as blind students getting placed in regular schools.
With the revelation that a large number of candidates wrongly select codes, gender and schools, it is important that parents show more interest in the selection of schools for their children in order to ease the burden on the CSSPS secretariat to undertake the placement exercise smoothly.
Obviously, the secretariat cannot determine the gender of a child only by his or her name if he or she is called Nana, Dela, Selassie, etc., since these names are for both males and females in parts of the country.
To correct such avoidable mistakes, the secretariat now has to spend three long months to painstakingly go through all the selection and placement forms to ensure that the correct information is provided before placement can begin.
If parents and school authorities pay serious attention to this process, more time would be saved to speed up the process for fresh students to begin the academic year on time.
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Admission to SHS is a critical stage in the lives of JHS students and so most schools begin the preparation of BECE candidates early, making the students virtually worn out by the time they write the BECE. Therefore, it is important that all forms of interference in the placement process are halted to allow the performance of the students to determine the schools to which they gain admission.
If officials of the CSSPS do not have the free hand to perform their duties, the placement system will not be different from the system which existed in the past and the problem that the CSSPS sought to resolve will continue to stare us in the face, leaving the students dejected.
Such dejection could be the reason parents and students seek examination questions, leading to the leakage in such examinations.
If the aim of the CSSPS is to ensure that the performance of candidates enables them to gain admission to schools, that should be upheld all the time to make the system credible.