The government of Ghana has made is entirely free to attend senior high school, this opportunity is available to students who write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) at JHS and meet the grade requirements to get admitted into a public senior high school under the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The process of analyzing the BECE grades and placing students in their respective senior high schools is done automatically through the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), administered by the GES.
Below is a breakdown of how SHS placement takes place, the entire process
BECE candidates select the senior high schools they would like to attend with assistance from their parents or guardians and their teachers and school authorities.
Every BECE candidate is required to select 5 different senior high schools from the schools register provided by GES. This process require you to choose according to your most preferred senior high to your least preferred school. Students will also have to choose their programme of study (General Science, General Arts, Business, etc) and the residential status either day or boarding.
BECE candidates are also required to choose a compulsory day school which falls in Category D of the GES senior high school categorization, this school must be within your community.
Parents/guardians are required to sign off the school selection form and have it submitted to the candidate’s junior high school headmaster. Parents/guardians must keep a copy of this form.
After the school choices are made by students (BECE candidates), district exam officers will now upload to the database of WAEC.
After a while, Ghana Education Service will release a short-code via SMS to candidates to help them obtain the list of schools, programmes of study and residential status the candidate has selected.
This stage, will enable candidates and their parents/guardians to check any incorrect inputs that may have been sent to WAEC and quickly update that.
After the release of the BECE results by WAEC, the entire SHS placement process begins. This process happens using candidate’s aggregate from four core subjects (English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies), and two of their best grades from their elective subjects.
The vacancies declared earlier by each school are then fed into the CSSPS to compute and designate candidates to their respective schools based on their grades, this process is called Automatic Placement.
BECE candidates who do not get school through Automatic Placement can try the other two modes of school placement on the CSSPS, Self Placement and Manual Placement.
Below is a guide on how the Computerized School Selection and Placement System choose students for their respective schools based on grades and other factors automatically.
Click here to see more on how to do Self-Placement on CSSPS
Every year, there are some vacancies left for protocol so stakeholders “big men” of the school can bring in some candidates. This is done to serve these stakeholders “big men” of the school.
To get SHS Placement through protocol, you must consult someone who is a stakeholder in a senior high school, like a pastor, chief or community leader to assist you with their privileges.
BECE candidates select their choice of schools from the school register provided for the year by Ghana Education Service.
The SHS Placement process is a broad one that stretch over months to compute and assign schools. Candidates and parents/guardians are required to take time and make sure this process is well done so they do not make unnecessary mistakes that will hinder their chances of getting placement. However, if you did not get placement, you still have a chance with Self-Placement and Manual Placement on the CSSPS.
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