NPP demands actual school placements for 54,985 BECE candidates

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has demanded that the government provide actual secondary school placements for the 54,985 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates who were initially not assigned schools under the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

The opposition party has also rejected the government’s decision to allow the affected candidates to access the CSSPS self-placement portal, arguing that access to the platform does not guarantee them places in schools.

According to the NPP, the opening of the self-placement portal does not address the underlying challenge because many of the preferred schools and programmes may already be full by the time the affected candidates access the system.

The party said parents and candidates should be focused on securing actual seats in classrooms rather than simply being given access to an online platform.

“A portal is not a school place,” a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said.

The NPP questioned why thousands of candidates remained without placements despite government figures indicating that there were 859,828 vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.

It argued that the challenge was not necessarily a shortage of spaces within the secondary education system but the concentration of demand on a limited number of preferred schools.

According to the party, 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, even though those schools had only 76,417 places available.

The NPP is therefore calling on the government to consider alternative measures to accommodate the affected candidates, including making use of the 85 private schools participating in the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme.

The party is also urging the government to improve facilities, staffing and academic programmes in schools that continue to have unfilled spaces, so they can attract more students.

Additionally, the NPP is demanding that the government publish the final placement outcome to indicate how many of the 54,985 affected candidates eventually secure actual school places.

The party maintained that the success of the placement exercise should be measured by the number of affected candidates who ultimately secure seats in classrooms, rather than the number who are able to access the self-placement portal.