We’ve decentralised SHS/TVET placement resolution centers – GES

The Ghana Education Service (GES), as part of its efforts to address the second-cycle school placement challenges, says it has decentralized the school placement resolution centers nationwide with District, Region, and National resolution centers.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of GES, Daniel Fenyi, said his outfit, aside from the national school placement resolution center, has made every District Education Office and Regional Education Office in the country a school placement resolution center.

At the District level, the GES spokesperson said only the District Public Relations Officer and the District Examination Officer have been mandated to address challenges with students’ second-cycle school placement.

“So when you go to the resolution center at the District Education Officer, see two people, the District PRO or District Examination Officer, and forward your concerns or challenges, they will address your concerns. If they are not able to address them, they will forward them to us at the National level to have them addressed,” he said.

He added that parents or students who are not satisfied with the school placement resolution center at the District Education Officer school can visit the Regional Education Office resolution center.

“If you are not satisfied with the District Education Office resolution center, visit the Regional Education Office resolution center, for there too you will see three people, the regional PRO, the Regional Examination Officer, and the Free SHS coordinator, they can address your concerns for you, and those that goes beyond them they forward them to us at the national level, then we address them” he stated.

Mr Daniel Fenyi indicated that two categories of challenges, namely systemic challenges and human challenges, are confronting this year’s computer second-cycle school placement.

He explained that the systemic challenges are those from the computer school placement system, while the human challenges are those on the part of students who sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has slated October 18, 2025, as the date for 2025 BECE graduates to report to their respective second-cycle schools placed by the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Mr Kofi Asare, has criticized the District Education Office as a school placement resolution center, saying they can’t resolve the most basic challenges.

“The most common request, I surmise, is switching a child’s placement from Day to Boarding, and this isn’t being handled at District Education Offices (DEO) as advertised,” he said in a social media post

In the social media post sighted by Pretertiary.com, he said, “The earlier you decentralize the ‘real resolution mandate’, the better, else we risk witnessing another stampede like the 2019 one.”

In a statement sighted by Pretertiary.com, it said the October 18, 2025, reporting date for first-year students for the 2025/2026 academic calendar applies to single-track and transitional 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.