Students unqualified for SHS/TVET placement to sit BECE remedial

Students who sat for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) but were not qualified for computer second-cycle school placement will need to write a remedial examination before they can get school placement, the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) Secretariat has said.

This, the National Deputy Coordinator for the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), Abdul Rahman Mohamed Dimi, said, is because they obtained grade nine (9) in at least one of the Basic Education Certificate Examination’s four core subjects, particularly Mathematics and English Language.

Speaking to journalists, the CSSPS official explained that such students did not meet the required standards for the computer placement, which disqualified them from the school placement portal.

“If you push a student who had an Aggregate nine to those grammar schools, they will struggle to fit in; the academic environment is a build-up to what they learned at Junior High School,” Mr Dimi said.

According to the National Deputy CSSPS, Abdul Rahman Mohamed Dimi, remedial programs are available to help students achieve the necessary grades for second-cycle school (SHS) admission.

In a related development, Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) says this year’s second-cycle school placement recorded high disqualification, saying disqualified candidates were 13,019, representing 2.2 %, matching the 2023 high of 2.2%, and a clear rise from 2024’s 1.8 %.

In a social media post sighted by Pretertiary.com, it attributed the high school placement disqualification rate to stricter examination malpractice detection and weak performance in Mathematics and English Language.

“Higher disqualification rates highlight the importance of continued vigilance on examination integrity and improvement in candidates’ exam preparation, especially in the core subjects,” it said in the post.

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

According to the Ministry of Education, of the 483,800 BECE graduates who secured automatic second-cycle school placement, 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.

This year, a total of 603,328 candidates, comprising 297,250 males and 306,078 females, from nineteen thousand, five hundred and five (19,505) Junior High Schools (JHSs) entered for the school examination.

This includes seventy-two (72 ) candidates with visual impairment, two hundred and thirty-nine (239) with hearing impairment, and one hundred and sixty-one (161) candidates with other test accommodation needs.

The examination was conducted at two thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven (2,237 ) centers across the country. Out of the total number, two thousand, five hundred and twenty-six (2,526) candidates were absent.

The BECE for Private Candidates recorded a total entry figure of one thousand, three hundred and ninety (1,661) candidates. This was made up of eight hundred and fifty-eight (858) males and eight hundred and three (803 ) females.

Fifteen (15) centers, mostly in the regional capitals, were used for the BECE for Private Candidates. Out of the total number of candidates who entered for the examination, fifty-seven (57) were absent.