The Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) has begun a mopping up exercise to place Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates who are yet to be placed into senior high schools (SHSs) and technical institutes (TIs).
The exercise is to give the candidates an opportunity to choose schools from a list of schools available for placement.
The Systems Administrator of the CSSPS, Mr Kwasi Anokye, who made this known to the Junior Graphic, said a list of schools with vacancies had been sent to the various offices of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for unplaced candidates to choose from.
So far, he said, 431,310 candidates, representing about 98 per cent of the 440,112 who wrote this year’s BECE, had been placed in SHSs and TIs.
Heads of SHSs and TIs declared 464,997 vacancies in their institutions this year.
Mr Anokye explained that some students were not able to gain admission to their first-choice schools because of intense competition, adding that limited vacancies in some schools prevented some candidates with good grades from getting their first-choice schools.
He explained that two per cent of candidates were placed outside their four choices because their raw scores did not enable them to compete favourably for any of their choices.
For such candidates, he said, they were placed in schools in their catchment areas, adding that “so far 90 per cent of candidates who fell under this category have accepted their placements”.
Mr Anokye said candidates who did not accept the offer were then given a list of schools to choose from, as was being done under the mopping up exercise.
The placement exercise, he said, had witnessed significant improvement over the years, stressing that the secretariat would continue to adopt measures to improve on challenges encountered every year.
This year’s placement exercise has not been without controversy, as candidates posted to some SHSs have still not been admitted as a result of inadequate accommodation facilities there.
In the course of this year’s BECE, five papers — English Language 2, Religious and Moral Education 2, Integrated Science 2, Social Studies 2 and Mathematics 2 — leaked, compelling the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to cancel them for the candidates to rewrite those subjects.
The number of candidates who wrote the 2015 BECE represented an increase of 15,084 over last year’s figure of 422,946.
Some 13,434 basic schools (public and private) took part in the examination, which was written in 1,546 centres across the country.
