Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has cautioned parents and students against seeing the 2025 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) as an absolute right, emphasising that the process is guided by merit and competition.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, September 23, Mr. Asare explained that although there are enough spaces in senior high schools to absorb all 590,000 candidates, challenges arise because many parents insist on placing their children in a handful of “popular” schools, regardless of academic performance.
“School placement is not a democratic activity. One of the challenges is the over-democratisation of school placement, where you are told that you have the right to choose. But that is not absolute. It is relative within a merit-based system,” he said.
He added that admission to specific schools depends not only on choice but also on meeting the competitive grade thresholds for preferred programmes.
“You may wish to go to Labone SHS to do science, but you must also know that the school is a competitive Category B school. So, your chance of going there is not a matter of choosing but also making a competitive grade with respect to the course you are choosing,” he explained.
Mr. Asare further stressed that equitable access to education requires parents to consider schools across all categories, rather than focusing only on a few institutions perceived as prestigious.
His comments follow chaotic scenes at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall in Accra on Monday, September 22, where hundreds of parents and students thronged the venue to file complaints over the 2025 BECE placement.
Source:Lovinghananews.com
