Parents, students besiege school placement centre

Another Computerised School Selection Placement (CSSP) time is here and with it, has come the usual attendant challenges for parents and their children.

Barely 24 hours after the Ghana Education Service (GES) released the placement for candidates who successfully took the 2022 BECE, the help centres are already being inundated with calls.

Yesterday, hundreds of parents and students trooped to the national centre set up at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall which is serving as the National Resolution Centre, to have their school placement issues resolved.

The placement issues presented at the centre included change of school, change of programme, self-placement issues, change of residential status, among others.

Placement

Last Wednesday, the Director-General of the GES, Dr Eric Nkansah, at a press conference announced that out of the 547,329 candidates who sat for the 2022 BECE, 372,780 were placed while 165, 619 would have to do self-placement.

However, candidates who obtained Grade Nine in English or Mathematics were not placed and thus cannot start their secondary education in 2024. They will have to retake the BECE as private candidates to better their grades before they can access SHS education.

Visit

When the Daily Graphic visited the centre yesterday, it observed that parents and students who had showed up with their documents, sat patiently in the hall, awaiting their turn to have their issues resolved.

There were security personnel and officials from the Free SHS Secretariat to ensure orderliness.

Also, there was intense education on TVET schools and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools by officials from TVET, encouraging students to choose TVET and STEM schools.

Concerns

Some parents and students who spoke to the Daily Graphic, said their issues were yet to be resolved, but were hopeful that they would have placement.

A student, Mariam Salifu, who had successfully gone through the process, said she was not placed in any school despite scoring an aggregate of 15.

“We were asked to choose six schools and I chose to read Home Economics in all of them, but I still didn’t get into any.

“I am done with the process and I have been directed to come back on Saturday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed to have my choice,” she said.

A parent who gave her name as Lilian, said she visited the centre with her daughter to change a school given her after using the online portal for self-placement.
She said initially her daughter, who had aggregate 25, was not placed in any school during the automatic placement.

“My daughter chose St Mary’s Senior High School, Ghana National College, Ada Senior High and O’Reilly Senior High School, but she didn’t get any of them. We tried the online portal and she had St Joseph Technical School, but we want to change it,” she said.

Another student, Kelvin, had a similar issue and said he was hopeful he would also be placed in any school.

“I had aggregate 36, and I just want any Secondary Technical School either in the B or C category,” he said.

“I don’t really have a major issue, I only brought my son here to have his residential status changed. We live at Ayawaso but he was offered Day status in Abiriw Presbyterian Technical Institute to read Electrical Engineering Technology,” a parent, Ama Nyarkoa, said.

Help Centre

The Deputy Coordinator for the Free SHS Secretariat, Nana Afrah Sika Mensah, told the Daily Graphic that the centre would be operational for an estimated six weeks to ensure that they attend to as many people as possible.

She said although an online portal was made available for self-placement, she advised those with issues to visit the centre to have them resolved.

“We are estimated to be here for six weeks, we have our call centre numbers, and then the national resolution centres in the various regions.

“Most of the parents are not privy to the portal and some cannot even access the internet, that is why we have set up the centre to take their issues, which we will take to our centre and resolve them,” she said.

She indicated that the self-placement portal allowed the students to choose as many schools as possible, but noted that they would only be given schools that had space for new admissions.

TVET

The Public Relations Officer of TVET Services, Mantse Akwetey, who was at the centre, also told the Daily Graphic that their presence there was to explain the options available such as TVET and STEM schools.

“The TVET options offer better employment opportunities, therefore I will encourage the students to choose them,” he said.

He indicated that with the TVET schools the students would be placed based on interest and not necessarily on grades.

“TVET is about interest, even though there is a certain significance of academics, it is about interest. When the child expresses interest in the programme, we give them the opportunity, he expalined.”

He said that there would be career orientation at the schools, done in the presence of their parents to determine the area the student would excel.

Background

The CSSPS was introduced in 2005 as part of the Ministry of Education and GES’ grand plan of programmes and interventions intended to expand access and improve the quality of education through teaching and learning as well as curricula development.

However, rather than making the process more convenient, each year, after the CSSPS has placed candidates in schools, hundreds of parents and students show up at the resolution centres with varied concerns.