272,000 BECE candidates placed in senior high schools
The Computerised School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) has successfully placed 272,330 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) candidates into senior high schools (SHS) and technical institutions (TIs).
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The acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Charles Aheto-Tsegah, who announced this explained that the figure represented the first batch of the placement exercise and directed all heads of schools to declare available vacancies early enough for the second placement by October 23, 2014.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, he said there were an outstanding number of 149,890 candidates who would be placed under the second batch of the exercise.
Background
This year, 422,220 candidates sat for the BECE. Out of the number, 421,270 are eligible for placement into SHSs and TIs.
The computerised system used the total processed raw scores of six subjects instead of grades of each candidate for the selection. Consequently, the raw scores have been posted on the net.
Candidates are placed in their first choice schools using the ranking order. The raw scores of each candidate were used to do the ranking.
Scratch card
Candidates wishing to check on the schools where they have been placed could do so from September 25, 2014 by buying a scratch card for GH¢4.00 at any of the rural banks and their agencies, post offices and Unibank Ghana Ltd, as well as the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
“All qualified BECE candidates can now know their school placement by texting their index numbers followed by one of the following numbers 11, 12, 13 or 14 which represents their specific examination year to SMS Short code 1060 to all mobile phone networks preferably Thursday, September 25, 2014,” Mr Aheto-Tsegah announced.
He said, the admission letters could be accessed using special PIN CODES on line from October 6, 2014. He said a successful candidate would be able to print out his/her admission letter from the internet using the PIN CODE, at a price of four Ghana Cedis only (GH¢4.00).
“The print out letter will then be presented to the senior high school for admission,” he explained, adding, “The CSSPS website address is as follows: http:www.myjhsresult.net. For suggestions and further information please e-mail the secretariat at [email protected]”.
Mr Aheto-Tsegah, however, explained that where no internet facilities existed, candidates were to contact the nearest regional or district education directorate or present their codes to the headteachers of their junior high schools to obtain the printout.
A total of 419 candidates scored grade nine in all the subjects and, therefore, cannot seek admission into any SHS or TI.
Mr Aheto-Tsegah further announced that 408,152 vacancies were declared by SHSs and TIs and was hopeful that all eligible candidates would be placed under the CSSPS.
Other options
The Ag Director-General explained that even though the declared vacancies did not match the eligible candidates, there were other options for candidates who could not secure admission into any of their prefered schools.
He said, for instance, after the second placement, those who would still not secure placement would have the opportunity of selecting a school of their choice from among a list of schools for placement, stressing, “we would not select the school for any students.”
Advice
Mr Aheto-Tsegah advised parents to give the CSSPS officials peace of mind to carry out their duties, stressing that the CSSPS Secretariat would not entertain parents who wanted to change the schools their children had been placed in.
Writer’s Email: [email protected]