CSSPS Blues: NAPO spoke like a ‘serial caller’- Prof. Gyampo

A Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG), Professor Ransford Gyampo has called on the Education Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh (NAPO) to be heedful of the potential consequence of his comments when making public pronouncements on issues that affect the sensitivity of the masses.

The Education Minister last Tuesday in a media interview answering questions on the Computerized School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) ‘mess’ alleged that former president [John Mahama] bussed parents and students to the Black Star Square during the senior high school placement exercise to court disaffection for the government and stage collapse at the venue.

In a reaction on JoyNews’ Newsfile monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the UG Lecturer likened the comments of the Minister to that of ‘serial-callers’ and not befitting of his caliber and the position he occupies.

He explained that no system is perfect and at best the Minister could have acknowledged the challenges that have characterized the process and calm nerves by outlining the steps they have initiated to mitigate the inconvenience rather than sound insensitive.

He noted that, he finds it a huge achievement for the Education Ministry and the Ghana Education Service to be able to place 351,022, out of the total 473,728 qualified students under the CSSPS program and just like challenges are bound to happen, the Minister could have acknowledged that.

Thousands of parents and guardians last week thronged the Black Star Square, Accra, to secure placement for their qualified wards to get a placement at a school they may not have chosen but has space.

The process was also to enable other students to change their placements.

Five students and a parent (pregnant woman) collapsed during the process of finding the placement and had to be rushed to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital for medical attention.

In a reaction, the Education Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, said the collapses and fainting spells of some of the parents and students at the Black Star Square were staged.

According to the Minister, some persons who wanted to mar the efforts of the Ministry to address the issues of placement of students into Senior High Schools bribed some people to feign exhaustion and collapse.

“We opened the center at the independence square to address the needs of Ghanaians who want to go to school, but some evil people have decided to pay GH¢20 and GH¢50 to people to go there and stage fainting and collapse, yesterday some of the collapses were fake. I’m even wondering why they brought little kids to the centre.”