Review or cancel Computerised Placement System – Lecturer to government

A Lecturer at the Presbyterian University College Ghana, Kwahu Campus in the Eastern Region, Dr Michael Ayertey Nanor, has advised the government and Ghana Education Service to consider either a review or a total abolishment of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System, which has been in existence for over a decade now without "any change”.

Speaking on Agoo FM, the lecturer also called for a National debate after practising this Computerized School Selection and Placement System for 16 years adding issues surrounding this system are getting out of hands.

A large number of students who wrote the Basic Examination Certificate Exam (BECE) were disqualified for school placement.

Mark Sasu Mensah, the National Coordinator for the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), said the affected students were disqualified on grounds that they had incomplete results.

The Ghana Education Service has postponed the reopening of first-year Senior High School students from Thursday, March 18 through to Sunday, March 21.

In a press release signed by the Deputy Director-General, the Service said the action is to give students who have had issues with self-placement time to complete the process.

Also, others who have not completed their school’s admission process have been encouraged to use the extension to complete the process.

The Service added that the rescheduling will also help parents have adequate time to prepare their kids for school as well as give schools additional time needed to prepare to welcome them.

Commenting on this development, Dr Nanor said “after over a decade of the introduction of the system which was supposed to bring convenience to students, parents and guardians, and to also take away corruption from the side of those who are in charge of the selection, the digitized system has rather increased the inconvenience and the corruption, hence the introduction of the self-placement system.”

He said a system that has not been reviewed since its introduction and has not been able to curb or serve its purpose should either be reviewed or totally cancelled, or revert to the old system which everyone was satisfied with its work.

On his part, a social commentator Nana Benyin Essuman, also added that there should be a cut-off point as far as the Computerized Placement system is concerned. He argued that should there be a cut-off point; the brouhaha over self-placement would end.