Some students collude with IT experts to change the schools they have been placed in by the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) on their placement forms to schools of their choice, Dr Stephen Adu, a Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has revealed.
According to him, this explains why sometimes students present placement forms to senior high schools when their names are not on the list of students submitted to the SHSs by the CSSPS Secretariat.
Dr Adu, who was speaking in an interview, said the falsification of information on the placement forms amounted to fraud and culprits would face the full rigours of the law.
He said after placement of candidates by the CSSPS, the lists of students for each school were sent to the SHSs heads for them to know the number of students to be admitted.
He added that “there is no way a head would admit a student whose name is not on the list by the CSSPS.”
The deputy-director general said even though the CSSPS had some challenges, it was an improvement over the manual system.
He said one challenge associated with the CSSPS was when the West African Eaxminations Council (WAEC) announces the release of the results and the time the placement are released.
Dr Adu pointed out that it takes some time before the results of candidates are released to the CSSPS secretariat to work with even though the WAEC would have already made the results available online and to schools.
This situation, he said often creates tension and anxiety when students are not placed early.
Dr Adu said there were also a number of technical challenges, such as students choosing the wrong codes for the schools so a girl ends up being placed in a boys school and vice versa.
Dr Adu, however, said the secretariat had acquired a software which would help improve such technical problems this year.
He stated that in spite of those challenges, the introduction of the CSSPS had helped to address the shortcomings in the manual system because it ensures fairness in the placement system.
