A Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr Stephen Adu, has advised parents to play a key role in the selection of senior high schools for their children in order to avoid problems during the selection process by the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
Dr Adu in an interview said, “most of the time, parents leave this role to the headteachers and their children and later complain bitterly when they are not placed in the schools they prefer.
He said one of the major problems the GES faced was with the CSSPS and asked parents to collaborate with school heads and their children so that good and acceptable choices would be made based on the children’s performance and the level of competition in schools chosen.
Dr Adu explained that senior high schools had been placed in various categories according to the level of patronage and not their performance, as some students perceive.
He said the placement of students into schools of their choice depend largely on their performance because the higher their marks, the more likely it would be for them to gain admission to their first choice schools.
The deputy director-general noted that the selection of senior high schools was changed from the first term to the second term to give students the opportunity to make very good choices.
He indicated that during the second term students would have settled down in JHS Three and become more familiar with the programmes offered in senior high schools to enable them to make informed decisions.
Dr Adu asked schoolchildren and teachers to take all levels in their education seriously because that would help them build a strong foundation and prepare them well to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
"Most of the time when students do not finish their syllabus and are not adequately prepared, they look for "apo" and the end result is not good for them," he added.
Dr Adu advised students to study hard and excel in the exam so that they could gain admission to the schools of their choice.
He apologised for the delay in the selection of senior high schools this year and expressed the hope that the process would be completed before students go on vacation.
