Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, has said the confusion over the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) is because parents want top schools for their children.
According to Kofi Asare, there is enough space to accommodate all qualified candidates, but parents and their children are chasing top schools.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, September 27, 2025, Kofi Asare stated, “The problems are not entirely new, apart from one which is new, a problem that was resolved in the past, I don’t know how it resurfaced this year. But generally, the issues relating to parents’ resentment of schools that the computer placed them in are normal, and they are going to be with us so long as we have inadequate resources as a lower-middle-income country”.
“The government of Ghana has adequate spaces to accommodate all 590k or so candidates who have qualified for placement. What the Government of Ghana does not have is the taste of all the 590k students. So there will definitely be some dis-equilibrium between the expectation of candidates, parents on one side and government’s ability to provide education to their taste,” he stressed.
Kofi Asare further explained, “Everybody wants to attend a good Category A and Category B school. You have about 700 plus Senior High Schools, and then you have people chasing about 100 schools. So these issues will continue to emerge so far as there are resource deficits”.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has boldly stated that he would not accept a student with an aggregate of 37 going into a Category A school.
According to the Education Minister, the ongoing SHS school placement process will be based solely on merit.
He emphasised that anyone found manipulating the system would be dealt with accordingly.
Haruna Iddrisu made this known while addressing concerns raised by some parents.
The Minister of Education stated, “Let me assure you that placement of persons who pass in the BECE exams is ongoing. The Director General sitting here have no access, I have no access, the Deputy Minister have no access. No Deputy Director General has access in order to guarantee the meritorious application of it”.
He detailed, “But sometimes there are other persons who may want to abuse it, and we’ll deal with them as and when we find culprits. For instance, I would not accept a student with an aggregate of 37 going into a Category A school. What would be your justification for that if you hear that a student with an aggregate of 35 or 37 is placed in a Category A school? Does he belong there meritoriously? That is questionable”.
He further touched on the issue of inadequate infrastructure to accommodate the high number of students entering senior high schools across the country.
Haruna Iddrisu noted, “On this matter of boarding schools, the Director General and myself met with the leadership of CHASS. We asked them to give us a list where necessary. But to all this, it just says that the government needs to invest more to expand infrastructure. If Achimota got two additional dormitory blocks and two additional state-of-the-art classrooms, it would double its intake, just as Wesley Girls, Yaa Asantewaa, Temasco, Adisadel or any other school,” he said.
“But the question is, have we invested in them? We have not; so, don’t expect that all of a sudden, we’ll be able to place people adequately. The number of persons who wrote the exams and passed far more exceeds the opportunities available. But we have done well, at least for the first time, we’ve expanded the limit to private senior high schools. Many of the students would be placed within the context of understanding that Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) have been extended to secondary education,” he added.