SHS placement delay due to probe in CSSPS scandal – Carbonu

The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, has suggested that the delay in the release of school placements for qualified SHS students is due to ongoing investigations into the scandal of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

BECE graduates who have qualified for Senior High School are yet to be placed despite the Ghana Education Service setting a deadline of February 20, for all new students to start school.

Some parents have raised concerns that parents will be financially stressed should the government decide to go ahead with such a short reporting notice for freshers considering that the GES is yet to release the school placements for the 2022 BECE graduates.

An investigation by the Fourth Estate, a private Media firm, has revealed that some parents paid between GH₵10, 000 to GH₵20,000 to get their children into Grade A schools in 2022.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, February 14, Mr Carbonu said there is a likelihood that the Ministry of Education wants to streamline the entire placement system to prevent the corrupt activities that allegedly bogged the placement in 2022.

“You recall that there is an investigation on a report about the placement in what happened last year, and it has really shaken the foundations of certain people in authority, and they would want to put in measures to ensure that we don’t revert to that same thing.

“Placement in school, why should somebody pay GH₵10,000 or GH₵20,000 to get your daughter to Wesley Girls, I am sure some of these are the things being streamlined hence the delay in placements.”

Mr Carbonu also questioned the relevance of the free SHS secretariat and also urged the GES to take over the placements of SHS students.

“Placement to school should be within the ambit of the Ghana Education Service not the Ministry of Education. There is a certain secretariat and I wonder the relevance or importance of that secretariat, the Free Senior High School Secretariat. I wonder why we still have that secretariat because they are not teachers, they are political appointees and they are running the free senior high school but I don’t know what they do and I have a difficulty in why they are found operating in every sphere of education.”