The time is due when parents have sleepless nights. They are brooding over how their children and wards would gain admission to their preferred senior high schools across the country.
The urge to have such kids gain admission in the leading schools is irresistible, a situation which makes them ready to part with so much to have their way.
The thought behind the computerised placement was to obviate such stressful moments and to facilitate the admission process. This is being done through the reduction to the barest minimum of human interfaces in the process.
Bad elements would always use criminal innovations to circumvent established orders for monetary gains. This is exactly what has happened and rightly making the rounds in social and traditional media.
When the news was broken about the placement process being sold for between eight and twenty thousand cedis, cynics sought to look at the issue with the political lens.
Following, however, the throwing up of the names of the suspects said to be behind the scandal on the public space, we could only wonder how such a sophisticated matter was managed by simple persons like security men, foremen and caterers. With this category of persons’ enterprise nowhere near school placements, we could not turn our attention away from the ingenuity of humans when monetary gain is the ultimate goal.
For those who sought to be mischievous about the scandal, of course, it is but a simple criminal activity which is being treated as such by the relevant authorities.
Let us all join hands in making this country a better place for ourselves and generations yet unborn.
There might be many with relevant information that could assist law enforcement personnel in their work. We entreat such persons to step forward with whatever details, no matter how small these maybe.
We can only imagine the pains parents are enduring at this time as the clock ticks towards schools reopening date and the kids pose questions about developments. With the contents of prospectuses waiting to be addressed, these are challenging times.
The stress the computerised system was designed to obviate is still harassing parents and by extension, the children, as they await school placements.
In the long run, the authorities should consider raising the statuses of schools so that many more SHSs would be established. This way, the urge to seek admission in top schools would be reduced to the barest minimum.
For now, the obsession to have their children in top schools makes parents vulnerable to the machinations of criminals who are ready to manipulate the system for their selfish aims.