By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA – Education sector stakeholders have called on the Ministry of Education to abolish the 30 per cent quota system in Senior High School (SHS) placement that favors public schools.
The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), said that the system was discriminatory, putting private basic schools at a disadvantage and undermining the principle of equal opportunity for all students in the placement process.
Leaders from the two associations and the Independent Schools and Teachers Council-Ghana raised these concerns during a press briefing in Accra.
The priority quota system reserves 30% of admission slots in Category “A” public SHS exclusively for students who completed their BECE in public schools, while the remaining 70% of vacancies are shared between both public and private BECE graduates.
Professor Damasus Tuurosong, President of GNAPS, stated that the quota system was not only unjust but also overlooked the important role that non-state institutions played in providing quality education to underserved communities.
He explained that while the system aimed to promote equity for students from disadvantaged backgrounds in public basic schools, the Ministry of Education was unaware of many low-fee private schools in remote areas where no state schools exist.
Prof Tuurosong pointed out that the system was based on the misguided perception that private schools were generally better resourced than public schools, adding that some private schools serve more marginalized communities than many public schools.
“This undermines the values of fairness and equal access that are fundamental to inclusive education. Every Ghanaian child, regardless of whether he/she attended a public or private school, deserves an equal chance of accessing public SHS’s,” he added.
Prof. Tuurosong called on the Ministry to adopt a placement system based on merit to ensure fairness to all Ghanaian students, regardless of the type of school they choose to attend.
“We recommend that adequate resources with effective monitoring and supervision be pursued by the Ministry of Education and the GES to bridge the perceived resource gap between public and private schools rather than the discriminatory approach,” he said.
Meanwhile, the two Associations have petitioned the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice on the matter and intend to pursue further legal actions if the Ministry refused to rectify the system.
GNA