School Placement: Parents appeal for extension of reopening date

By Kodjo Adams

Accra, Nov. 1, GNA – Some parents of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), candidates, who were placed in this year’s Senior and Technical High Schools, have appealed to authorities to extend the date for school reopening.

The parents expressed concern about the short notice for school reopening for the first-year students entering the second-cycle schools.

A statement from the Ministry of Education on October 28 urged heads of all SHSs to begin registration and orientation on October 30, 2024, while academic work commenced by November 7, 2024.

As a result of the statement, hundreds of parents and their wards thronged the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) headquarters in Accra to address challenges associated with their placement.

Some of the challenges GNA observed include change of school and courses, no placent, errors on gender, issues relating to day and boarding school, among others.

Ms Joyce Ababio, a parent, expressed worry about the situation, saying, “The school reopened today, October 30, but we are here to address challenges on the placement.

“These challenges will take some days or weeks before they are addressed, while academic work starts on November 7,” she said.

She said the school placement should had been out earlier for parents to prepare ahead of time.

Mrs Lord Adjetey, a parent, said his son was placed at Ngleshie Amnfro SHS in Kasoa as a day student, but they lived in Accra Newtown.

“I am here to get a school close to my area since we could not get our first choice. So far the processes are okay, and we are hoping to get a quick response from them,” he said.

Most of the parents GNA spoke to appealed to the Ministry of Education to extend the reopening date to allow them to prepare adequately.

They said the processes were affecting them psychologically and mentally because they had abandoned their businesses to follow up on the placement issues.

GNA observation at the resolution centres showed that parents and their wards were seated while others stood waiting for their turn to be attended to.

Out of the 563,339 candidates that sat for this year’s BECE, 553,155 qualified for placement into Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions.

Out of those who qualified for placement, 447,698 students, made up 80.93 per cent, were automatically placed into one of their selected school choices, while 104,918 qualified students could not be placed in any of their preferred choices.

The statement encouraged students who were not placed in their preferred choices to use the self-placement platform to select schools that still had available slots.

GNA