The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has demanded that the government provide actual school placements for the 54,985 BECE candidates who were initially not assigned secondary schools.
The opposition party has also rejected the government’s decision to allow the affected candidates to access the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) for self-placement, arguing that the move does not guarantee them places in schools.
According to the NPP, opening the self-placement portal does not resolve the underlying challenge, as many of the preferred schools and programmes may already be filled by the time the affected candidates log onto the system.
The party argues that parents and candidates should be concerned about securing actual seats in classrooms rather than simply being given access to an online portal.
“A portal is not a school place,” a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said.
The NPP further questioned why thousands of candidates remain without placements despite government figures indicating that there are 859, 828 vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.
It said the challenge is not necessarily a shortage of places within the education system, but the concentration of demand on a limited number of preferred schools.According to the party, 313, 283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, despite those schools having only 76,417 places available. The NPP is therefore calling on the government to explore alternative measures to accommodate the affected candidates, including the use of the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme.
It also wants the government to improve facilities, staffing and programmes in schools that continue to have unfilled spaces. The party is further demanding that government publish the final placement outcome to show how many of the 54,985 affected candidates have eventually secured school places.
The NPP says the government must be judged by the number of affected candidates who eventually secure seats in classrooms, rather than the number who are able to access the self-placement portal.
