By Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
Private legal practitioner Noah Adamtey has called for counselling and orientation to be incorporated into the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) to support students who are placed in Senior High Schools (SHSs) they did not choose.
He said the placement process should take a holistic approach by providing psychosocial support to students who may struggle to adjust to schools outside their preferred choices.
“We need to approach education holistically where we provide counselling sessions for these children who are sent to the schools they did not choose as part of their orientation because it affects them,” Mr Adamtey said.
Speaking on GBC’s Current Agenda today, he said some students placed in schools they did not select could become emotionally distressed and distracted as they compared their situation with that of peers who secured admission to their preferred schools.
Mr Adamtey expressed concern about challenges that characterised this year’s placement exercise, during which thousands of qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) graduates were placed in schools they had not selected, while others were not placed.
He cautioned against politicising the placement of students into SHSs, saying it could undermine fairness, transparency and public confidence in the system.
The legal practitioner urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education to review the CSSPS guidelines and engage key stakeholders ahead of the next placement exercise to prevent a recurrence of the challenges.
“I am looking for a time where we will see a collaboration with the current Minister of Education and past Ministers of Education, bring people who are stakeholders in and those who have the expertise as well, sit down and bring a workable solution to this matter,” he said.
He further called on school authorities, parents and guidance and counselling coordinators to provide the necessary psychosocial support to first-year students to help them settle into their new school environments, regardless of whether the schools were their preferred choices.
