The Senior High School (SHS) students who wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination can now check their school placement details.
According to the Ghana Education Service (GES), candidates who just completed the recently concluded BECE will start selecting the SHS they would like to attend from Monday 21st September to Saturday 31st October.
Table of Contents
SHS School Placement – Every Detail
Following the release of the 2024 BECE results, we’ve decided to enlighten all candidates on everything there is to know about school placement in 2024.
For candidates, parents, and guardians, it’s important to have a clear understanding of how the SHS school placement works.
School Placement
Following the release of BECE results by WAEC, the placement process will begin. Using the candidate’s aggregate from his/her four core subjects
- English
- Maths
- Integrated Science
- Social Studies and the other two best grades from his/her elective subjects.
There are three ways by which placement is done under the CSSPS, there are;
- Automatic Placement
- Self-Placement
- Manual Placement
1. AUTOMATIC PLACEMENT
This is the process by which the CSSPS places the students by merit into one of their chosen schools in descending order. This is run automatically without any manual intervention.
If the candidate’s aggregate falls within the merit of the programme chosen for their first choice, the CSSPS then checks the student’s preferred residential status for space and places him or her accordingly. If the desired residential status is full, the CSSPS moves him or her to the second choice.
For example, if a student with an aggregate of 8 would otherwise get a place in school “A” but has chosen the more competitive boarding option and space is full because other candidates with a better aggregate have secured placement into the boarding house, then the system will not place him or her on day status in that school because the DAY option was not the candidate’s choice.
The system will move to their second choice school to attempt to get both their programme and residential choice. If unsuccessful, the system will proceed to their third choice and so on. The process is repeated until the student is placed.
Where a candidate has chosen a school both as boarding and as their compulsory day choice, if the system is unable to secure boarding space for him or her, it will then seek to place him or her on daily basis in that school.
Tie-Breaking
Where a school is oversubscribed for a particular programme by students with similar aggregates, a tie-breaking system is employed to determine the placement.
i. The number of Grade Ones
E.g. If 300 students with Aggregate Six are competing for Science in School A and there are only 120 science spaces available, the ranking will be done such that those with Nine Ones will gain admission, followed by those with Eight Ones, and so on.
ii. Raw Score
If there is still a further need to break a tie, this will be done in descending order with respect to the raw scores obtained.
iii. Subject performance
A further tie-breaking, where necessary, will then follow with respect to the core subjects;
- English
- Mathematics
- Integrated Science
- Social Studies.
Depending on the level of performance and therefore competition, it is possible for a candidate with Aggregate six to miss out on a highly competitive programme in a highly competitive school and on a highly competitive residential status like boarding, in which case he or she will be moved to their 2nd choice for possible placement.
For instance, if you choose the highly competitive science programme in OWASS and you miss out, you cannot come and ask for your programme to be changed to another programme at OWASS.
Sensitization of school heads and other education has been ongoing. Schools are to guide parents in turn. Plus media engagement will soon start.
B. SELF-PLACEMENT
Self-placement is a process that grants candidates an opportunity to go into the CSSPS portal and select from schools with available vacancies.
Features of Self-Placement
i. Only Schools with available vacancies will be displayed on the portal.
ii. Schools with vacancies will be displayed for candidates to choose from based on their aggregate.
iii. Schools shown will have their location and residential options available
iv. Candidates can change schools as many times as possible depending on available spaces. The opportunity to change CEASES immediately after the candidate enrols in a school.
How to Place Yourself
Candidates will log into the system using their index number and will also choose his/her residential preference i.e. Day or Boarding.
a. If a candidate selects boarding, all schools with boarding vacancies will be displayed.
b. If a candidate selects a day, then there will be a drop-down menu for the candidate to select;
- Day within the catchment area
- The day outside catchment area
c. Day within the catchment area displays only schools with day vacancies within 16km of the JHS that the candidate attended.
d. Day outside catchment area displays all schools with day vacancies.
Before the day outside the catchment area is affected; the candidate must confirm again if they intend to attend school outside their catchment area as a day student.
The candidate is also able to select their preferred programme.
Once they confirm from the list of available schools that meet their preferences, they are then placed in the school by the system and can print out the placement sheet and go to the school to enrol.
