Gov’t to build 10 new Category A schools to ease SHS placement pressure — Iddrisu

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu says government will construct 10 new model Category A senior high schools as part of measures to ease intense pressure on the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

Mr Iddrisu said the current challenge facing the placement system was not necessarily a shortage of senior high school spaces nationwide, but the overwhelming demand for places in a relatively limited number of Category A schools.

Speaking in an interview on TV , monitored by The Executive Spotlight, the Education Minister said more than 300,000 students had expressed preferences for Category A schools, while available places in that category were only about 76,000.

He said the disparity had created intense competition for some of the country's most sought-after schools, despite government having declared hundreds of thousands of vacancies across Categories A, B and C.

“We cannot put every child in Category A,” Mr Iddrisu said, explaining that the government was working to expand capacity while improving the quality of education across all categories of schools.

10 new model schools

Mr Iddrisu said the government planned to construct 10 new model Category A schools as part of a broader infrastructure expansion programme.

He said government was also considering the conversion of about 20 Category B schools into Category A institutions to increase the number of high-performing schools available to students.

According to him, the expansion would form part of a wider strategy involving infrastructure development, quality assurance and teacher professionalism.

He said the government was also engaging the World Bank over financing support for the planned expansion, although the facility was still at the engagement and procurement stage.

The Minister said the government was further directing resources through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) towards the expansion of selected Category A schools.

Pressure concentrated in Category A schools

Mr Iddrisu maintained that Ghana had sufficient SHS vacancies overall to accommodate eligible students, but said parental and student preferences had created a significant imbalance.

He noted that schools such as Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School (PRESEC), Achimota School and Accra Academy continued to attract exceptionally high demand.

He said the government could not create enough places in a handful of Category A schools to accommodate every student who wanted to attend them.

The Minister therefore urged parents and students to recognise that the quality of education should not be determined solely by the category assigned to a school.

He argued that students in Category B and C schools could perform exceptionally well when provided with qualified teachers, appropriate infrastructure and a conducive learning environment.

Over 50,000 students not initially placed

Mr Iddrisu also disclosed that more than 50,000 students were not initially placed through the system, with many of those cases involving candidates who had failed either Mathematics, English or both.

He said such students would have the opportunity to use the self-placement process based on their examination performance and available vacancies.

He added that private senior high schools had also been incorporated into the placement system to provide additional options for students who could not secure places in the public categories.

AI to improve placement

Looking ahead, Mr Iddrisu said the government intended to deploy artificial intelligence to improve the placement process.

He said technological improvements would be part of efforts to make the system more efficient and responsive to the growing demand for secondary education.

The Minister also insisted that the CSSPS should operate transparently and independently.

“I have no access to the placement system,” he said, rejecting suggestions that the Minister of Education personally controls placements.

He said all placements should go through the established computerised system to protect the integrity of the process.

Government's broader response

Mr Iddrisu said the infrastructure expansion was part of a broader effort to address challenges inherited within the education sector.

He acknowledged that the Free SHS programme had significantly expanded access to secondary education but argued that infrastructure had not expanded at the same pace, contributing to pressure on classrooms, dining facilities and other school infrastructure.

He said government was therefore seeking to address the infrastructure deficit while maintaining access and improving educational quality.

The Minister expressed optimism that the planned investments would gradually reduce the pressure on the placement system and provide students with more quality options outside the traditional Category A schools.