The former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Charles Aheto-Tsegah, has raised concerns about how the Ministry of Education has broadly categorized the 54,985 candidates who were not placed by the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) in the initial placement exercise for Senior High Schools (SHS) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. Editorial Ethics & Independence
He stated that the raw figures should not be automatically interpreted to mean that all the candidates who were not placed failed academically or were inherently incapable of proceeding to the next level of education.
Dr. Aheto-Tsegah called for a more nuanced analysis of the placement figures to distinguish candidates who genuinely fell below the minimum requirements for progress from those whose overall performance might have merited promotion to the second cycle, but were unsuccessful due to specific placement parameters.
“We need to actually move beyond or change the orientation from where we are starting to place our children and look at their general performance,” he opined on Monday, September 7, 2026, in an interview with Eyewitness News, following the Ministry of Education’s announcement of 54,985 unelected candidates under the initial CSSPS process.
Figures published by the Ministry of Education indicated that out of the 54,985 not placed, 35,382 students obtained a grade nine ineither mathematicsor English Language, and 3,372 failed to partake in the2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The former GES Director-General reiterated that grouping such diverse categories under a generic banner of unelected students would give parents and the general public an erroneous picture of the performance of their wards, whose efforts might have been in many aspects commendable, only failing to secure the needed grade in a subject.
“The person may not be getting a credit, but then in his total work done, it is that he should proceed to the second cycle,” he indicated.
The former GES Director-General said much consideration ought to be given to candidates’ general performance before deciding on their readiness to proceed from basic to secondary education.
“It is only appropriate that even if a student is weak in one subject in which a credit is required for him to proceed to the next level, you must have to look at his overall performance before you can decide that a weakness in this particular area is equivalent to the fact that he should not be allowed to progress,” he stated in his interview, which was monitored by the news portal.
He cautioned against lumping a wide spectrum of categories of students together since their profiles are drastically dissimilar in their academic makeups. Editorial Standards
“This places candidates at the bottom and then the remaining one (candidates with less than pass) at another separate category.
Candidates who were generally good could easily be misjudged to be not academically able to proceed when in reality they may be academically bright but poor in one subject,” Dr. Aheto-Tsegah noted.The discourse follows revelations at the tail end of the2026 SHS and TVET placement system whereby54,985 candidates for second cycle admission were reportedly denied by the CSSPS system.
Parents, candidates, as well as other interested bodies have expressed worry and disappointment at the inability of their wards and loved ones to secure placements.
The CSSPS is an automated system that manages the placement of BECE candidates into public second-cycle institutions with diverse criteria including the candidates’ performance, choice of schools, availability of vacancies and prerequisite subject pass marks among others.
Dr. Aheto-Tsegah however wants the conversation moved beyond how the CSSPS, without itself being blamed, handled placement for a multitude of students, adding that attention should not be paid just to the numbers that did not get placement.
“It is very difficult for you to point an accusing finger at the CSSPS to say that it is not functioning as required,” the former Director-General maintained. “One has to take a look at the parameter by which we qualify our children to proceed and by which we place our children in various SHS schools,” he advised.
The debate is the latest development among numerous discourse in the Ghanaian education system, regarding how BECE results of students should be considered when transitioning from the primary level.
While some hold strongly to specific examination standards, education bodies, parents, and many concerned individuals are advocating for a shift towards a more holistic assessment of candidates prior to determining their progress to secondary level, citing concerns that good performers in several subjects who are weak in only one are penalized. Contact Us
The issue brings to the fore the question of whether the present marking scheme, where a credit is required in specific subjects for progression, is comprehensive enough to properly screen candidates for the next stage of education or whether a general assessment is sufficient in all respects for such placement purposes.
The Director-General of GES, Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, a colleague that Dr. Aheto-Tsegah has worked with before, stated to the news network that the number is enormous but that the GES would implement strategies to help place the unelected candidates.
However, Dr. Aheto-Tsegah expressed concern that the presentation and calculation of the number has made it appear as if a whole category of students was unlettered in terms of ability as per the demands of the system to proceed to the next level.
As many candidates remain uncertain regarding their academic fate and the number of those unplaced students climbs to an astronomical level, educational administrators continue to battle it out with the aforementioned discussions on the matter.
Both sides must however, compromise between demanding for the full right to each candidate in its various forms of assessment, and an unwavering pursuit for efficiency within the system.
The former Director-General underscored the urgency to differentiate categories of candidates who were unelected, adding that his argument would strengthen further as the number continues to grow with every past or future placement exercise conducted under the same framework.