3 arrested for manipulation of SHS/TVET placement system – MoE

More than three individuals have been arrested in connection with an alleged bribery and manipulation of the computerized school placement system, the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed.

“They are even more than three,” he revealed, saying, “We have improved our cybersecurity systems, which allow us to monitor and police what is associated with the placement.

The Minister in Charge of Education added that “A few weeks back, we got National Security to arrest three individuals. We will allow the law to deal with anybody found culpable.”

Speaking at the launch of the ADEA Triennale on Education Conference, he said that to tighten access and accountability, the Ministry has restricted access to the CSSPS portal, including access for top officials.

“For now, we have limited access to the portal as part of our management of it. Me sitting here — I don’t have access to the portal. My deputy does not have access either. That way, we can hold the individual with access fully accountable. That is the strategy we are using,” he explained.

The Education Minister said plans are underway for the central government to embark on an equity distribution initiative aimed at upgrading some Category B second-cycle schools to Category A status.

The move, Honorable Haruna Iddrisu said, is intended to ease placement challenges, where many students struggle to gain admission to their preferred Category A second-cycle schools in the country.

“To address equity and capacity, the Minister has discussed with the President a plan for 2026 to convert at least 10 Category C schools to Category B, and 10 Category B schools to Category A,” he said

This conversion, Mr Haruna said, will be backed by infrastructure development, including available classroom blocks, dormitories for students, and quality improvement through improved teaching and learning materials and aids.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu gave assurance that the Education Ministry remains committed to ensuring transparency and fairness in the school placement process and will continue to collaborate with national security to root out corruption.

In a related development, the Deputy National Coordinator of the Free SHS Secretariat, Dr Belinda Glover, says two persons have been arrested for reportedly offering bribes to Computerized School Selection and Placement (CSSPS) officials to change the Senior High School (SHS) placement of their wards.

According to Dr Glover, the suspects were apprehended after they tried to influence the school placement of their wards by presenting multiple request sheets, a clear breach of the established process.

“Some of them come here with five or more placement sheets. Beyond 2, you are in for business because you can’t tell me you have five children all entering senior high school at the same time

Even with that, we followed up on some of these cases and found that they collect money from people and come here pretending to be parents. Once we detect that, we involve the police,” she explained.

Deputy National Coordinator of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) Secretariat, Dr Glover, added that the perpetrators have been handed over to the police, together with the bribes they offered.

Dr Belinda Glover has therefore cautioned the general public against paying to alter placements, stressing that the system has strong monitoring measures in place to detect irregularities and fraud.

“Inasmuch as we are here to help the public, we must also be smart. Anyone caught attempting to tamper with the process will face the law,” the Free SHS official noted.

This year, out of the 590,309 BECE students who qualified for second-cycle school placement, a total of 107,000 students were asked to do self-placement at https://www.cssps.gov.gh/hub/self-placement.

Of the 590,309 BECE candidates who qualified for second-cycle school (SHS/TVET) placement. A total of 483,800 were placed automatically, while 107,000 secured schools through self-placement.

According to the Ministry, 483,800 BECE graduates secured automatic second-cycle school placement. Of these, 234,783, representing 48.6%, were boys, and 248,038, representing 51.4%, were girls.

It indicated that 82 per cent (82%) of qualified students who sat for the 2025 edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) have been placed in their first-choice second-cycle schools.