Statement: Government officials abuse computer placement for SHS

Challenging Heights has gathered evidence of malfeasance at the ongoing Computer Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). We have subsequently officially complained to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to investigate and bring to justice those who would be found to have corrupted the system.

In the last few days, there have been reports that officers in charge of the CSSPS are collecting monies, some as high as one thousand two hundred Ghana cedis (GHC1,200) in order to place students in senior high schools where they would otherwise not have been placed.

Some of the reports have it that officers are removing duly merited and placed candidates from their chosen schools, and placing students whose parents have paid bribes in their places though the favored students did not obtain the requisite raw scores.

There have been several allegations that some students who secured aggregate six (6) in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) did not secure admission to any of the six (6) schools they selected due to these corrupt practices.

The coordinators of the CSSPS have indicated that too many children selected the “first choice schools”. They have gone further to give examples, that, for instance, over 6,000 candidates selected Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast as their first choice. According to them, over one thousand of this number secured aggregate six (6) in the BECE, and that the school could only select just a little over 300 students.

What we concluded from this example that the CSSPS Coordinators have given is that no student could gain admission to Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast if that student did not secure aggregate six (6) with extremely high raw scores in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

However, we currently have evidence that there are some students who the CSSPS has posted to Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast who secured aggregate eight (8) in the BECE.

We have similar evidence to show that there are students who have been placed in Holy Child School in Cape Coast who gained aggregate nine (9), though explanation from the Ministry of Education indicates that it is not possible for such students to be posted to that school through the CSSPS, looking at the caliber and number of students who selected it.

This situation seems to be wide spread especially in the schools that the Ministry has labeled “first choice schools” in the categories of choice. Some of the “first choice schools” so labeled by the Ministry of Education are Mfantsepim School in Cape Coast, Achimota School in Accra, Presbyterian Secondary School in Legon, Adisadel School in Cape Coast, Aburi Girls School in Aburi, Holy Child school in Cape Coast, Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, and Prempeh College in Kumasi.

We are prepared to provide information on the issue. We are therefore urgently calling on CHRAJ to initiate investigations into the matter, and to bring the perpetuators to justice.

James Kofi Annan

(President) Challenging Heights 0274449500