NPP demands actual school placements for 54,985 unplaced BECE candidates

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is demanding that the government secure actual secondary school placements for the 54,985 BECE candidates who were initially left without school assignments.

The party has rejected the government’s decision to open the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) for self-placement, arguing that access to the portal does not guarantee an available seat in a school.

“A portal is not a school place,” the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee Chairman, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said in a statement.

The NPP contends that by the time affected candidates access the self-placement system, many of their preferred schools and programmes could have exhausted their available spaces.

It therefore wants the government to focus on securing classroom places for the affected candidates rather than measuring progress by the number of students who successfully access the online portal.

The party has also questioned why 54,985 candidates remain unplaced despite government figures showing 859,828 vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.

According to the NPP, the problem is less about the overall availability of school places and more about the heavy demand for a limited number of preferred institutions.

It noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, although those schools collectively have only 76,417 places available.

The NPP is consequently urging the government to consider alternative measures, including the use of the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme, to accommodate candidates who remain without placements.

It is also calling for improvements in infrastructure, staffing and academic programmes at schools with unfilled spaces to make them more attractive alternatives for students.

Additionally, the opposition party wants the government to publish the final placement figures, showing how many of the 54,985 candidates eventually secured actual school places.

The NPP insists that the government’s performance should ultimately be measured by the number of affected candidates who secure seats in classrooms, not by the number who gain access to the self-placement portal.