As the results of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) are announced each year, thousands of Ghanaian families experience a period of anxiety.
It is never merely a question of whether a student passed, but also which senior high school they were placed in. Parents desire their children’s names to emerge with PRESEC, Achimota, Wesley Girls', Holy Child, or Adisadel.
Even students begin to evaluate their own worthiness based on whether they were placed in a "Category A" school. When such hopes fall through, crushing disappointment results.
Obsession for category ‘A’ schools
This obsession with school names is one of the most harmful misconceptions in modern education.
The belief that a student's success is determined by the school's reputation rather than by their own dedication, determination, and hard work is fostered by this.
The basic fact that the student creates the school, not the school, is something that most people are aware of, but never put into practice.
Ghana has thousands of examples to support that. Many of our most successful attorneys, doctors, engineers, artists, and politicians were not educated at the "big name" schools.
They choose to persevere in the very school they were sent to. However, parents and students forget this and pin their hopes on stretching the system to land a so-called "better" school.
And here is where we have another alarming trend. Rather than facing outcomes with integrity and seeking positive ways to support their students, some parents take a shortcut.
They call in favours, pull political levers, or offer money off the books to coerce their students into a school whose achievements do not warrant.
Shortcuts
In doing so, they give their protégés an unintended but corrosive lesson: that life is about shortcuts, not about putting one's shoulder to the wheel and being responsible.
This practice does more harm than good.
First, it undermines fairness in the schools’ placement system, denying opportunities to students who actually earned them.
Second, it puts undue pressure on the very students whose parents think they are helping.
Imagine a student who struggled with Mathematics in JHS but ends up in a competitive “Category A” school through backdoor means.
Instead of building confidence, they may feel overwhelmed, inadequate, and out of place.
Compare this to another student who, though placed in a less prestigious school, decides to buckle up, seek extra help, and grow.
In the long run, it is often the second student who comes out stronger.
Parents have a more responsible option open to them: Providing their students with support and practical assistance.
If a student did badly in some subjects, why not spend money on remedial lessons or regular tuition?
Why not establish a home atmosphere where studying is respected, where students realise their effort is more valuable than some tag or badge sewn onto a school uniform?
These actions do much more to promote resilience than advocating for a "better" placement.
We must communicate with the students directly as well.
Their future remains uncertain regardless of the school that the placement system posts/assigns to them.
A motivated student at a "Category C" school can perform better than a distracted student in a "Category A" school.
Indeed, there are disparities in the resources available, but the most crucial resource is found within each individual: self-control and resolve.
It is high time we transformed the national narrative.
Instead of debating about school names every year, let's talk about creating a culture of hard work, perseverance, and integrity.
Let's teach our students about where success originates: in oneself and never in a school name.
Ghana's future is reserved for people who radiate confidence within themselves but never institutionally.
In the end, the school’s name fades, but the mindset lasts.
It is not about the walls of Achimota or PRESEC — it is about the strength of character each student carries into those walls, and beyond them.
The writer is an Education Programme Officer,
Ghana Commission for UNESCO
Email: Kofi.kwakye@unescoghana.gov.gh
