THE Ministry of Education is embarking on a Nationwide Sensitization tour to educate the public on the school selection guidelines for 2019.
The workshops currently ongoing across the country tasked by the Minister of Education, Mattew Opoku Prempreh are meant to educate and sensitize personnel on the 2019 school register and selection guidelines which will eventually culminate into school placement for 2019/2020 academic year.
Mr. Kwasi Obeng-Fosu, the Deputy PRO of Ministry of Education speaking at one of the sessions held at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipal of the Eastern region, reiterated the Minister of Education, Mattew Opoku Prempreh ‘s commitment to ensure they do not record the large numbers of parents and guardians who trooped to the various regional centers to seek help with the placement of their wards after last year’s release.
He disclosed that he believed that the participants at the workshops would further educate parents, students and the general public about this year’s school selection guidelines.
At the forums, experts and representatives from GES, FSHS, CSSPS and the Ministry of Education were allowed to address, discuss concerns and also share experiences on how 2019 BECE Placement into senior high schools is going to be implemented.
The Computerized School Selection and Placement System was introduced in 2005 to replace the manual system of selecting students into the various senior high, technical and vocational schools.
The overarching objective of this computerized system has been to fully automate the school placement processes in order to reduce human errors and to promote efficiency and fairness in the selection and placement of students in senior high schools in the country.
Since its inception, lack of public education and awareness of the process have been identified as the major reasons stakeholders, especially candidates and parents, are unable to effectively participate in the annual process.
This is because there seems to be the low engagement of guidance and counseling on how the schools are selected by BECE candidates, including course or program they intend to pursue, as well as their residential status, among others.
In 2019, the Ministry of Education has released new guidelines on how the schools are to be selected.
These include the following: Candidates can, in accordance with the 2019 school register, select 1st – 5th choice schools from a combination of Categories A, B, C, D, and E.
They can also choose five(5) in the catchment area day school which is the Category D compulsory day school. This means that the compulsory day school is now restricted to candidates’ 5th Choice.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua