12 BECE school placement frequently asked questions answered

As the Education Ministry collaborates with the Ghana Education Service to release the SHS placement of 2020 BECE graduates, here are answers to some 12 frequently asked questions about the BECE school placement.

These twelve (12) frequently asked questions and answers have been compiled by Georgeweb.org to help teachers, parents students and the general public to well understand the BECE school placement system.

1. I missed out on all my five choices. What do l do? Candidates who miss out on all their choices after the automatic school placement system is done, still have the opportunity to select schools with vacancies available through the Self -placement process described earlier.

2. Can a candidate with good grades miss out on their first, second or all of their choices? YES, All spaces in the schools are competitively filled taking into consideration the available spaces in the school (i.e. Preferred residential status and programme of choice). Hence, qualified candidates are ranked from the highest score to the lowest and it will cut off when the spaces are exhausted.

Those who did not get placements are then moved to their next school of choice to compete for space there, and the process continues further down the chain.

3. Is it possible for someone with aggregate 7 not to get access into a particular school but someone with aggregate 10 can get int that same school? YES. Programmes selected and residential status may differ from one candidate to the other. Therefore, the competition for slots may differ. For instance, in most cases, the Science programme of study is highly competitive over other programmes, and so is a Boarding accommodation status over a Day Status.

4. A candidate with Aggregate 10 got placed on a particular Programme and residential status and yet another with Aggregate 8 did not, even though they chose the same programme and residential statuses. How is this possible? There is a protocol system of placement that allocates 5% of a school’s declared vacancies to the school for allocation to its stakeholders.

It is, therefore, possible for the ward of an alumnus or a staff member of the school to get admission ahead of another child seeking admission to the same school. Other stakeholders include the Missions and the Traditional Seats of the relevant school.

Talented candidates such as those good in Sports may also be considered by a school for some of its protocol slots. Similarly, 30% of spaces in the country’s top 55 schools have been reserved for candidates from public Junior High Schools. As such, candidates from Public Basic Schools across the country compete for the 30% of space. Hence, the competition for 60% is different from the competition by 30%.

5. Is it possible for someone who did not choose a particular school
to be placed in that school? NO. It is not possible during the automatic placement process. However, a candidate can get placed into a school through ‘protocol’ placement procedures.

6. Can a person change school after enrolment? No. The Placement process ends once a candidate begins the admission process by going to the school to complete the relevant form(s). Any movement from one school to another after enrolment is considered a transfer. A student can only transfer after one academic year.

7. Can a student change their residential status or programme of
study after placement? NO. A candidate usually gets placed into a particular school based on their preferred programme and the residential status they chose. A candidate competes for a slot in a particular school based on the preferences provided. Therefore, neither the residential status nor the programme of study can be changed

8. Can I change a school I selected through self-placement? YES. A candidate who got placed in a school through self -placement, can change the school on the portal so long as that candidate has not enrolled in a school.

9. I selected and was placed in a school that was on my list of school
choices. Can I change to another school? NO. You cannot change to another school if the school was one of the five schools you chose.

10. Can 1 be enrolled into a school when 1 or a representative of
mine is not present? NO. For enrolment to be successful, the school will need the student’s unique ID, address and details of their parents or guardians, and phone number.

Once a candidate or parent/guardian submits their forms to the school place, the school uses the information provided on the forms to enrol the candidate. Therefore, it is not possible for a school to get all such personal information of a candidate without the candidate or a representative is present in the school.

11. I was enrolled in a school but my name can no longer be found
on their system. What can be done? If indeed a candidate was enrolled in a particular school but the details can no longer be found on the school’s system, the Head of the school will formally report to the appropriate office for redress. The candidate should not be sent away from the school.

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12. The head of the school 1 want my child/ward to go to says there
is space in the school. Can the child be placed there on this basis? NO. Schools have established ways of communicating with authorities. Placement is done on the basis of the vacancies declared by the schools. Once those vacancies have been filled by the CSSPS in that school, we are unable to do any further placements in the school.

Source: Georgeweb.org