181,000 Vacancies declared for BECE placement

Page 11
24-09-08



HEADS of second cycle schools have declared a total of 181,000 vacancies for the placement of qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates under the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
The number of declared vacancies outstrips the 173,315 BECE candidates who qualified for placement this year.
What this means is that there is hope for the 33,837 qualified BECE candidates who have not yet had placement into second cycle schools, the Director of the Basic and Secondary Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Stephen Adu, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Out of a total of 173,315 BECE candidates who qualified for placement, 139,478 candidates including 1,579 re-entry candidates have been placed into senior high schools and technical institutes leaving 33,837.
Mr Adu attributed the non-placement of some qualified candidates into second cycle schools to the wrong selection of programmes and schools.
He said the candidates used wrong codes for instance to select schools, adding that although the candidates were required to choose from six schools, some of them did not do so, probably confident that they were going to get their first choice schools.
“We are going to sort out all these problems on own merit. That is why we have established a task force on the placement exercise,” he stated.
Mr Adu explained that the placement was done on competitive basis, and that those who had not been placed had been directed to contact their district directors for further instructions.
To qualify for placement, a candidate needed to score not more than grade five in the four core subjects of English, mathematics, science and social studies, and not more than grade six in any other two subjects.
He added that the raw scores of candidates were used in the selection process, and that even though two candidates might have the same aggregate, one might get his/her first choice school ahead of the other.
About two weeks ago, the GES released the 2008 placement of qualified BECE candidates into second cycle schools under the CSSPS.
A statement signed by the Director General of the GES, Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, said the results of the placement would be available at junior high schools, senior high schools and technical institutes from Friday, September 26, 2008.
It said candidates could access their placements by texting only their index numbers to MTN, 1755, 1756; Kasapa, 1755 and Onetouch, 7777.
It noted that the placement was based on choice of schools, programmes and scores, and that fresh students were expected to report to their respective institutions on October 14, 2008.