CSSPS awaits BECE results to begin placement

CSSPS awaits BECE results
—To begin placement September
Story: Hadiza Nuhhu-Billa Quansah
The Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) will begin the placement of all qualified candidates into senior high schools (SHSs) by the end of August.
Although the results for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) are already out, the CSSP Secretariat is waiting for the raw scores from the West African Examinations Council to start the placement exercise. The entire exercise is expected to be completed by the middle of September to enable fresh students to start school at the end of that month.
The National Co-ordinator of the CSSPS, Mr Samuel Oppong, who disclosed this to the Junior Graphic in an interview, explained that this year, communities with SHSs and technical institutions (TIs) stand the chance of placing 30 per cent of candidates within their catchment area. This means“the SHS must be 16km within the community the school is situated”.
Mr Oppong said the reason for the 30 per cent allocation was to enable qualified candidates to get access to schools within their communities. “Therefore, if you did not attend school within the area, you will not be considered for placement even if that area is your hometown”, he added.
According to him, qualification for this allocation must be within the minimum pass mark of aggregate 30. However, he said the schools may have to take a second look at the raw scores during the admission process if the number of interested candidates exceed the vacancies available. In this case, he explained that the candidate with the higher raw score would be provided admission.
He pointed out that the 30 per cent allocation was open to candidates from both public and private junior high schools.
This year, three categories of candidates will be placed. These are: this year’s candidates, qualified BECE candidates who were unable to gain admission to, or deferred their admission to,SHS??? or TIs within the immediate past three years and foreign candidates (Ghanaian citizens abroad who want to attend school in Ghana).???
He said six subjects would be used for the placement exercise. These are the four core subjects namely: English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Social Studies and two best subjects of the candidate.
Mr Oppong mentioned some of the recurring problems with the placement exercise each year as shading of wrong codes and parents changing schools indiscriminately. In order to correct these problems, he urged parents to find out the exact schools their children selected by texting the index number of the candidate and add 11 to indicate the year the candidate sat for the BECE. In all, he said, there should be 12 digits.Parents on any mobile network should send that to 1477 for confirmation before the system is run by the end of the month.
He cautioned parents to be wary of people who would approach them to pay money to them with the promise of securing places for their children in any school. “The secretariat does not charge any money for placement, therefore, parents should not pay money to any person for the purposes of admission to SHS”, he stressed