Eight members of a frauduelent syndicate undermining Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSPSS) have been arrested.
The suspects have been charged and arraigned before court.
However, two members of the supposed criminal group managed to escape.
The arrest follows investigative report carried out by the editor-in-chief at Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni and his team.
The investigative piece, “School Placement for Sale” uncovered widespread fraud in the system.
Speaking on the matter, Manasseh said “police have taken whatever evidence that they need from us and we hope that as time goes on they may be able to reach out beyond these eight and get to whoever served as the link between the intermediaries and also the Ghana Education Service, Director General and the Ministry of Education because only the two people could have agreed to any placement made into a category A school.”
The Fourth Estate documentary revealed the CSSPS for students to Senior High Schools has been corrupted in that it is no longer based on merit but requires the payment of enormous sums of money to warrant admission into desired schools category.
It exposed how the protocol placements into category A schools were sold in 2022 even though approval for such placements was limited to only the Minister of Education and Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.
The documentary revealed that 10 percent of slots are usually reserved for protocol placements.
It further revealed that some parents paid up to GHC20,000 to get their children enrolled in top-tier senior high schools.
In some cases, people pay as much as GHC10,000 to maintain a slot, according to the investigative documentary.
Some have argued that the practice has been in the system for a very long period of time, only that it is just now being revealed because the payments are becoming outrageous.
The CSSPS was introduced to eliminate corruption in the placement system, but some private individuals and government officials have connived to undermine the system.
By Vincent Kubi