Parents happy with CSSPS - Coordinator

Accra, Sept. 9, GNA - The Coordinator of Computerised School Selection and Placement (CSSPS) said on Friday that many parents were happy with the new system of placement of candidates into senior secondary schools.

He said only a few parents and guardians who still did not understand how it operated and felt they should get their children into the schools of their choice instead of where the computer placed them felt bitter.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra, Mr A. A. Akuoko said there was no vacancy in any of the public senior secondary schools.

He urged parents and guardians whose children or wards had been placed in the private schools, which they were not happy with, to look around their vicinity if they could get admission in private schools near them.

He said parents who were at the CSSPS Secretariat on Thursday with their complaints were asked to fill forms so that the Secretariat would look into their problem.

Mr Akuoko said what some of the parents did not understand was the issue of aggregate adding that now they were not dealing with aggregate but scores.

The Ministry has said unlike the manual system, which relied on the grades obtained in six subjects, the CSSPS would utilise scores obtained by candidates in six subjects; four core and two best subjects. The four core subjects for Senior Secondary Schools are English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies. For Technical/Vocational Institutes, the four core subjects are English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Pre-Technical/Vocational Skills. Mr Akuoko said the computer automatically did the selection and placement of candidates based on his/her performance and choice of school and programme.

He said instead of leaving students out of the placement because they did not perform well the computer managed to find schools, which ran the programme they chose and placed them there. On school fees in private schools, Mr Akuoko said negotiations would be done with the heads of the private schools to arrive at new fees.

A number of parents and guardians on Thursday complained bitterly about the new Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), saying it was frustrating them, their children and wards and called for a reversal to the old system.

Parents and guardians who had received admissions of their children and wards had gathered at the Secondary Division of the Ghana Education Service early on Thursday to express their disappointment at the new computerised system and to seek solution to their problem.

Some of the parents, who spoke to the GNA said they could not understand the way the selection and placement had been carried out. The Ministry of Education and Sports introduced the new system, effective this academic year because, it said, the manual system had for years been a source of stress and frustration to parents, heads of schools and candidates.

It noted that issues of missing cards, wrong choices, the rejection of second and third-choice candidates by some heads, inability of candidates to select schools from more than one region and a host of other problems had become the main characteristics of the manual system.