- Advertisement -
Some stakeholders in the education sector have described this year’s School Selection and Placement exercise as very successful.
According to the stakeholders who include parents, educationists, and education Non-Governmental Organizations among others, the fact that there has not been any issue of a parent paying money before being placed in their preferred school attested to a smooth exercise.
To this, they commended the sector Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum for putting in place prudent and strategic measures to ensure that all loopholes were sealed leading to this feat chalked.
Mr. Bright Appiah, Executive Director for Child Right International, for instance, stated that the major challenge that confronted the exercise in the past was alleged payment of money by some parents and now that no one has come out to complain about such an issue meant that some measures have been put in place leading to the gains in that direction.
Again he said, the smoothness with which issues were resolved at the resolution centers was also another issue worth commending to ensure that challenges submitted to the staff were resolve quickly for students to prepare and go to school.
Mr. Appiah praised the government for the introduction of a 30 percent protocol for students from public schools which creates an avenue for students from deprived and hard-to-reach locations across the country to be placed in Grade A Schools.
He described the policy as very good and called for it to be protected and firmed up so that it would continue to support and create opportunity for students from less endowed schools who usually do not do well during the BECE through no fault of theirs as a result of the status of their schools
The Executive Director suggested that since the issue of challenges of schools in deprived areas in the country would not be ending now, there was a need for a government policy to protect such students so they could also have access to top-notch schools as they move up the education ladder since they did not get the same solid foundation as those in the urban areas through no fault of theirs.
The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Mr. Kofi Asare, also added his voice to the gains made by the Education Ministry in the smooth execution of the School Selection and Placement exercise.
He commended the Education Minister for the swift measures put in place Minister after concerns were raised that some people took advantage of the desperation of parents to extort money from them for placement.
Mr. Asare was not happy with the 30 percent protocol for students in public schools since it does not lead to fairness.
He, therefore, called for it to be reviewed with support from all stakeholders to ensure parity among all Ghanaian students irrespective of where they were located.
Staff Sergeant George Yeboah of the Ghana Armed Forces Education Unit, on behalf of parents was happy with this year’s placement exercise but called for the number of staff at the center to be increased so that people would not waste much time the center.
He also called for the staff of the resolution center to be trained in customer service care so they would be able to assist the anxious parents who rush to the center wanting their issues resolved so they do not go home unhappy.
END
[2/26, 2:40 PM] Felix MoE: Ninety-one percent of qualified students successfully placed so far-Education Ministry
A total of 492,437 students representing 91 percent out of 538,399 candidates who qualified for placement have as of 9:30 am on Sunday, February 2023 been successfully placed in their Senior High and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) school of choice.
This is an improvement against the 372,721 (69 percent) which did so through automatic placement a couple of days ago.
The Press Secretary to the Education Minister, Mr. Felix A. Baidoo, who disclosed this to the media on Sunday explained that the 119,716 candidates were those who used the self-placement system for the selection of their choice of school.
He was upbeat that the remaining nine percent left will surely go through the process so they could enroll in their choice of school.
The Press Secretary also praise the personnel of the National Resolution Centre for the swift handling of challenges brought to their attention
Commendation
Mr. Baidoo also eulogized the Education Minister for the prudent measures put in place to ensure that anxious parents and their wards do not waste much time at the resolution centers.
He added that, as an institution that is human-centered, there was no way it would not come across challenges but the swiftness with which the Education Minister strategize to curb the challenges was worthy of commending.
Background information
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) released the BECE results on January 25, 2023.
According to WAEC, out of the 547,329 registered candidates, 538,399 candidates qualified to be placed.
A total of 372,780, representing 69.24 percent (69.24%) of the qualified students, were automatically placed in one of their choices.
The 165, 619 candidates who qualified represented 30.76 percent but could not match with any of their choices those going through the self-placement exercise.
- Advertisement -
