Editorial: Enough Of The CSSPS Nightmare!  

Education remains one of the most important investments a nation can make in its people. It provides the foundation for human capital development and equips citizens with the knowledge and skills required to contribute meaningfully to national development.

Ghana, like many countries, has over the years made significant efforts to improve access to education and develop the human capital needed to drive its socio-economic transformation. Each year, thousands of Ghanaian children sit the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), with the expectation of progressing to second-cycle institutions to continue their education.

However, the period following the release of the BECE results has increasingly become a source of anxiety for students, parents and guardians, particularly when it comes to securing placement in senior high schools.

Ghana has undoubtedly made progress by introducing technology into the school placement process through the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). The system was intended to make placement more transparent, efficient and less susceptible to human interference.

Yet, despite these improvements, the annual school placement exercise continues to generate considerable confusion and frustration.

Data available to The Chronicle indicates that the number of candidates sitting the BECE has continued to rise. In 2024 569,236 candidates sat the examination, compared with 603,328 in 2025 and 619,985 in 2026.

The increasing number of candidates should ordinarily be a source of satisfaction, as it reflects the growing number of young people seeking education.

However, this achievement is accompanied by a worrying challenge: the pressure on the country’s second-cycle education infrastructure and, consequently, the school placement system.

The release of the 2026 BECE results has once again brought the problem into sharp focus, with reports of long queues at CSSPS resolution centres in Accra and Kumasi as thousands of candidates sought assistance with their placements.

For parents and guardians, the situation can be particularly distressing. The Chronicle has learnt that some are forced to spend hours at resolution centres in an attempt to resolve placement difficulties.

More troubling are the persistent allegations of corruption, bribery and placement fraud that have periodically surrounded the CSSPS. The school-placement fraud controversy involving the Ghana Education Service in 2023 remains a reminder of the need for stronger safeguards and greater transparency in the system. The problem is also partly structural.

Ghana has hundreds of senior high schools, but the number of schools in the most sought-after categories remain comparatively limited. This creates intense competition for places in certain institutions and puts enormous pressure on the placement system.

We, therefore, believe that the perennial difficulties associated with school placement cannot be addressed solely by tinkering with the CSSPS. The Government must also confront the infrastructure and capacity challenges within the second-cycle education sector.

The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service must urgently review the CSSPS and identify practical ways of making the process more efficient, transparent and accessible.

The Chronicle welcomes moves towards digitising the complaints-resolution process so that parents and students do not have to endure congested physical resolution centres. If properly implemented, such a system could significantly reduce the burden on families and make it easier for genuine placement problems to be resolved.

The authorities must also continue improving the CSSPS portal to enable candidates to track their placement status, confirm choices and undertake self-placement where appropriate.

Similarly, the self-placement and re-entry mechanisms should be made sufficiently user-friendly to enable students who do not secure their preferred placements to identify schools with vacancies without having to physically queue at resolution centres.

The Chronicle believes that when some of these policies are implemented, it will help ameliorate the perennial problem in the interest of mother Ghana.

 

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