Parents demand more CSSPS centres as queues overwhelm Accra’s GNAT Hall
Families report arriving before dawn, waiting for hours and making repeated visits without resolving their children’s senior high school placement problems.
Parents and students struggling with senior high school placements are calling for additional resolution centres in Greater Accra as large crowds overwhelm the facility at the GNAT Hall in Accra.
Families seeking help with the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) say they have endured long queues, hours of waiting and repeated visits without receiving satisfactory answers.
The parents want the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of
Education to establish more centres across the region, improve communication and deploy additional officials to manage the cases.
One parent, Mr Kwame Antwi told The Executive Spotlight, he arrived with his child at 5 a.m. but had received no clear indication that their problem would be resolved that day.
“I was here with my ward at 5 a.m.. I dont know when they will attend to us. I can't even tell if my ward's issue will be solved today ” he said.
He questioned why families across Greater Accra had to rely on one facility for assistance with placement-related problems.
“The whole of Greater Accra Region, we have only one centre to resolve all these kinds of challenges. It is very, very appalling,” he said.
“Why can’t we make them get about four or five centres to resolve these challenges? One centre for a Greater Accra Region is not acceptable.”
Another parent, Mr Stephen Amoah said the situation was affecting families who had to leave work repeatedly to seek assistance.
According to him, some parents who arrive early at the centre yesterday , wait until the afternoon and were asked to return today without having their concerns addressed.
“A person could come here from 4 o’clock and stay here to 2 o’clock, and they’ll go there again. Tomorrow you come back, you come back and you have to start again. It’s too much,” he said.
He added that the repeated visits made it difficult for parents to earn money and prepare to support their children’s education.
Beyond the waiting times, some parents complained about inadequate communication and a lack of clear direction at the centre.
They said they had been asked to obtain numbers and join queues but were not given sufficient information about when or how their individual cases would be handled.
Others raised concerns about what they described as unexpected changes or discrepancies in their children’s placements.
One parent alleged that his child’s placement had been changed to a private day school after the family initially checked the result. The circumstances surrounding the reported change have not been independently established.
A retired professor at the centre also said his son, who took the Basic Education Certificate Examination in the Ashanti Region, had been placed in a school in Greater Accra despite selecting schools in Ashanti.
He said the placement created difficulties because the student needed to live with his parents.
For the affected families, the immediate demand is for quicker access to officials who can explain and resolve their placement problems before students begin reporting to school.