SHS placement challenges: GES says 95% of students are already placed

The Ghana Education Service (GES) says about 95% of students seeking admission to senior high schools (SHSs) have already been placed, dismissing concerns that this year’s Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) is facing a nationwide crisis.

Head of Public Relations at the GES, Daniel Fenyi, said the current placement figures indicate a significant improvement in automatic placements compared with previous years.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, Mr Fenyi said 527,000 students had so far been automatically placed, compared with 483,000 in 2025 and 447,000 in 2024.

So if you ask me what changed, what changed is a significant improvement in the automatic placements that were done this year.”

Mr Fenyi said the improvement was also reflected in the sharp reduction in the number of students relying on self-placement.

According to him, the number of students using the self-placement option had fallen from about 107,000 last year to 53,000 as of September 10, although registration was still ongoing.

He said automatic placements accounted for approximately 87% of placements, while self-placement accounted for the remaining 13%.

“Then we are talking of the number or percentage of placed students hitting about 93 to 95% of the students placed, as we speak,” he said.

The comments come amid reports of frustrations among parents and guardians over school placements, particularly at some resolution centres in Accra and the Ashanti Region.

Mr Fenyi, however, cautioned against interpreting the challenges reported at some centres as evidence of a nationwide placement crisis.

I want to emphasise that if you have a system that has been able to place about 95% of the students through automatic and self-placement put together, you cannot, by any stretch of imagination, call such a 95% efficiency a crisis. It cannot happen.”

The GES official also rejected concerns that the placement difficulties were being caused by a shortage of spaces in senior high schools.

“In terms of spaces, we have well about 800,000 spaces for 600,000, a little over 600,000 students who want to pursue senior high education,” he said.

Mr Fenyi explained that the available capacity was therefore sufficient to accommodate students seeking senior high school education.

He said the CSSPS currently has 17 resolution centres across the country to address technical challenges, human errors and individual placement concerns.

According to him, 15 of the 17 centres were operating smoothly, while Accra and the Ashanti Region were experiencing the most visible pressure.

Mr Fenyi said the situation at the Accra resolution centre should not be used to assess the overall performance of the placement system nationwide.

Accra is not Ghana,”

he said, arguing that the large number of parents and students seeking assistance at the Accra centre did not necessarily reflect the situation across the country.

He said the GES remained focused on resolving outstanding cases through the designated resolution centres.

“So let me assuage the fears of stakeholders who might be following these placement issues critically. That if you have 17 places that are addressing issues, and 15 of them are running efficiently, you cannot say that the resolution centres or the placement itself has issues.”

The GES says it will continue addressing unresolved cases as the placement and registration process progresses.