EduWatch calls for 2023 BECE review of school placement system

Education think tank – Africa Education Watch has called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to review the school placement system used to enrol students who sat for BECE into public second-cycle schools.

In a post sighted by AcademicWeek, EduWatch said the Education Ministry must put adequate measures to strengthen checks and balances, promote transparency and depoliticize the computerised school selection and placement system.

The think tank has also suggested for the Ministry in charge of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) publish placement data in Senior High Schools, as was done prior to 2015. Index numbers and results.

“Hold broad stakeholder engagement to review and strengthen the system. These internal committees are more operationally and administrative focused than systemic,” Africa Education Watch said in a social media post.

To ensure a free and fair school placement, the Watch has urged MoE to remake the computerised school selection and placement system (CSSPS) into a proper department of GES headed by a GES staff and not a political appointee.

“Consider proposals to maintain CSSPS, while possibly decentralizing the school placement to the regional director or school level, strictly supervise compliance with the system, and investigate and sanction defaulting school heads appropriately,” it noted.

Commenting on the school placement fraud investigation, the Education Policy Research and Advocacy Organization urged the Minister for Education to invite the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate further.

“I urge the Minister to invite the CID to investigate further, as this may assist in the successful prosecution of the already arrested 8 Goro Boys (G-8),” the Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare said in the post.

His appeal comes after an investigation by the Fourth Estate indicated last year’s second-cycle school placement was monetized by some individuals who claim to be officials from the Ministry of Education (MoE).

According to the Estate’s report, computer placement into Category A or what could best be described as Top Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the country was sold from GH₵10,000 up to GH₵ 7,000 by the self-acclaimed MoE officials.

Currently, the police have arrested eight suspects in connection with the school placement fraud uncovered by The Fourth Estate. None of them the Estate says are from the Education Ministry, GES or the Free SHS Secretariat.