Education Minister warns SHS heads against admitting students outside CSSPS

The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has directed heads of Senior High Schools, Senior High Technical Schools, and Technical and Vocational Institutes not to admit students outside the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

The directive, communicated through the Directors-General of the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana TVET Service, cautions heads of second-cycle institutions against manually admitting students or admitting them outside the approved CSSPS process.

“Any head of school found to have admitted students outside the CSSPS, upon confirmation through enrolment data validation, shall be sanctioned in accordance with the applicable regulations and the Code of Ethics,” the directive stated.

According to the Ministry of Education, the directive forms part of government’s commitment to improving access to secondary education and strengthening the integrity of the placement and enrolment processes.

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The Ministry said strict adherence to approved vacancy declarations and enrolment thresholds is critical to achieving the objectives of the World Bank-funded Secondary Education Transformation for Access, Relevance and Results for Jobs Project, known as STARR-J, which is intended to expand and improve teaching and learning infrastructure.

It said previous placement cycles, particularly last year, recorded significant discrepancies between the number of students placed through the system and the number actually enrolled in schools.

The Ministry said the discrepancies indicated that some school heads admitted students outside the approved placement system.

It warned that under-declaring vacancies and later admitting students outside the CSSPS undermined the integrity of the placement process, created data inconsistencies and distorted enrolment planning.

The practice also affected budget projections and created challenges for the timely and accurate disbursement of funds to schools.

The Ministry explained that the 2026 placement cycle had been enhanced to include a built-in enrolment component, providing a comprehensive end-to-end system for student placement and enrolment.

It stressed that once vacancies are declared, validated and confirmed on the system, there shall be no further expansion of vacancies.

“The exact number of students placed through the CSSPS shall constitute the approved enrollment for each school. No school head is permitted to admit any student outside the CSSPS,” the directive stressed.

The Ministry last Friday night released the 2026 senior high school placement for qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) graduates, with mixed reactions from parents and guardians.

While some parents and students expressed excitement over securing their first-choice schools, others, including students with good grades who could not obtain their preferred schools due to competition, expressed disappointment and called for changes.

Those required to undertake self-placement on the CSSPS also raised concerns. Another complaint involved students being placed in day schools far from their places of residence.

This year’s placement followed a new process introduced by the Ministry under which BECE graduates were given the opportunity to see their examination results before selecting their second-cycle schools. The move was intended to give candidates an idea of their performance before making their choices.

The BECE was written from May 4 to May 11, 2026. A total of 620,141 candidates, comprising 304,349 boys and 315,792 girls, from 20,395 schools sat for the examination across the country. The figure represented an increase of almost 2.7 per cent over the previous year.

The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, is expected to hold a press conference to provide further information on this year’s placement exercise and the way forward for students who have concerns.