Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has reiterated that the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) is effective and does not require a review.
The comment follows the Ministry of Education’s announcement that it plans to constitute a technical team in the coming days to undertake a comprehensive review of the CSSPS.
Speaking on Newsfeed on Channel One TV on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, the Executive Director of Eduwatch, Kofi Asare, argued that the current placement system needs no review and should instead revert to the version that existed before 2025.
According to him, the system should be restored to the 2024 module, which he described as superior to the current one, except for issues relating to the percentage of protocol allocation for public basic school students.
“We have not been calling for a review of the current placement system; what we have been calling for is a reversion to what existed prior to 2025. We believe that CSSPS as existing per the 2024 module was good except that the ministry announced a reduction in the protocol allocation for public basic school students from 30%.
“That was the only thing that needed to be changed. Apart from that, we believe that the CSSPS is good, and the challenges that we raised about the system are normally issues related to the enforcement of existing protocols rather than reviewing the placement mechanism,” he said.
Mr. Asare further noted that the challenges associated with this year’s placement are not new, explaining that similar problems were addressed between 2019 and 2020. He therefore urged the Ministry to conduct an audit to determine why those issues have resurfaced.
“New challenges we have seen this year: students have been placed in schools, students have been given programs they didn’t select, students have been given a status day or boarder contrary to what they selected, and students being made day students in other districts from where their junior high schools were located are very new challenges.
“They existed in the past; they were resolved by 2019–2020. And we don’t understand why they resurfaced. We are in favour of an audit to ascertain the reason why problems that were solved in the past resurface this year, not a review,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education Haruna Iddrisu, during a surprise working visit to Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School (PRESEC), announced plans to review the CSSPS to ensure greater transparency, efficiency, and fairness in student placements into second-cycle institutions across the country.
Source: citinewsroom.com
