Haruna admits SHS placement is a ‘Problem’, But rejects failure tag

Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Tamale South, has acknowledged shortcomings in this year’s Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) but disputed characterisations of the process as a failure.

He argued that the underlying crisis stems from infrastructure that failed to keep pace with the previous administration’s Free Senior High School (Free SHS) expansion.

Speaking on phone to Samson Lardy Anyenini on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, Mr. Iddrisu said government recognised challenges with the CSSPS, but that its focus was on addressing underlying causes rather than symptoms.

“I admit that we have a problem as a country. I am not interested in dealing with the symptoms,” he said, adding that he wanted to address what he called the “real problem.”

The numbers

According to the minister, roughly 604,000 students are currently in the placement system, of which 527,000 – about 87 per cent have been placed, a proportion he said could not reasonably be described as a failure.

He said unplaced vacancies persist nationally but are concentrated in schools that students and parents do not prefer.

The pressure point, he said, is Category A schools: between 313,000 and 328,000 students applied for Category A places against roughly 76,000 available spots, more than half the total candidate pool competing for the smallest tier of capacity.

By contrast, he said, Category C schools carry more than 200,000 unfilled vacancies and Category B roughly 126,000 reflecting demand skewed heavily toward higher-prestige institutions rather than an absolute shortage of places.

On roughly 53,000–55,000 candidates affected by English or Mathematics results, the minister said these figures conflate two distinct groups those who failed both subjects and those who failed only one, with the latter eligible for a “self-placement” route outside the automatic CSSPS allocation.

Disputed infrastructure claim

Mr. Iddrisu rejected an assertion attributed in the interview to a Dr. Tandoh linking roughly 800 disputed vacancies to schools built under the previous NDC government of John Mahama.

He said the vacancies instead arose from a separate policy allowing private senior high schools to admit WASSCE graduates, citing a figure of approximately 71,000 places created through private-school participation.

He attributed the structural placement crisis chiefly to what he described as unmanaged enrolment growth under Free SHS, citing school-level examples, among them Prempeh College, which he said grew from roughly 2,300 students at the end of 2018 to more than 4,000 today, and Presec, which he said roughly doubled over the same period without commensurate additions to classrooms, dormitories, laboratories or workshops.

Funding and expansion plans

The minister described a World Bank-linked infrastructure package intended to fund ten new Category A model schools, prioritising Western North, Kasoa and Nima, alongside a separate $250 million domestic allocation this year for expanding facilities at existing elite schools, including Wesley Girls’, Achimota, Prempeh and Presec.

He also cited government plans to convert 20 Category B schools to Category A status and 30 Category C schools to Category B, and confirmed a planned “community day school” model for Nima, alongside boarding facilities elsewhere, as part of a broader push to expand capacity in regions including the Northeast, Savannah and Oti, that he said currently have no Category A schools at all.

Bribery allegations

Asked about allegations of bribery at CSSPS resolution centres, Mr. Iddrisu did not confirm any specific case but said any person with evidence, “even an inkling,” of money being solicited should report it, pledging police CID involvement. No arrests or ongoing investigations were disclosed in the interview.

The minister said a case of a student allegedly placed as a person with disability had been factually confirmed and rectified, while a separate claim involving an Achimota placement remained unverified.

 

 

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