Gov’t Revamps CSSPS to Guarantee Meritocracy and Transparency

The government says it has completed an overhaul of the Computer School Selection and Placement Systems (CSSPS).

The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, who announced this, explained that it was to ensure that meritocracy, transparency and equity, and more importantly, predictability guided the placement process.

“But much of it, we should all admit, is problems created by all of us. In many instances, we have seen registration of unqualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) students. You can imagine somebody in Primary Six, Form One or Form Two being encouraged by their parent to write BECE.

“That is not acceptable under our GES practices, and any student or parent caught will be dealt with decisively.

The students must go through the full course of Primary School to Junior High School 3 before writing BECE. We will strictly enforce the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and GES standards on this matter,” Mr Iddrisu stressed at a press briefing in Accra yesterday.

The minister announced that the government would restore the policy of the catchment area in the process of BECE student placement at the secondary level.

He stated that the opportunity of catchment area policy, where some opportunities were given to the community and community leaders and persons within that community to have access to secondary education, would be improved in the coming days.

Mr Iddrisu directed the Director-General of the GES to ensure that students began the process of deciding on school choice, “but that process is not to be completed until the results are finally announced and determined”.

“So, in the past, we had a situation where students determined and chose schools without knowing their aggregate level, and that affected the placement system.

“This time, we will give a mandatory period of one week after the results have been declared for students to confirm on the basis of their performance in the BECE what their first choices are,” the minister further announced.

Contribution of Alumni
Mr Iddrisu said the government also recognised that alumni played a significant role in the survival and transformation of many of the schools across the country.

“Accordingly, a dedicated percentage will be given to alumni for the purpose of placement in their revised CSSPS programme. I pray that this will not be abused, just like the protocol is often abused,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu further announced that there would be a supervising technical working committee that would supervise the work of the CSSPS and, “then the restoration of a displacement algorithm to ensure fairness and placement of candidates who would have preferred school choices”.

Source: Graphic

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