Some stakeholders in the education sector have described this year’s School Selection and Placement exercise as very successful.
According to the stakeholders who include parents, educationists and education Non-Governmental Organisations among others, the fact that there has not been any issue of a parent paying money before being placed in their preferred school attests to a smooth exercise.
As a result, they commended the sector Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum for putting in place prudent and strategic measures to ensure that all loopholes were sealed.
Mr Bright Appiah, Executive Director for Child Right International, for instance, stated that the major challenge that confronted the exercise in the past was alleged payment of money by some parents and now that no one has come out to complain about such an issue, means that some measures have been put in place, leading to the gains made in that direction.
Again, he said the smoothness with which issues were resolved at the resolution centres was also worth commending, to ensure that challenges submitted to the staff were resolved quickly for students to prepare and go to school.
Mr Appiah praised the government for the introduction of a 30 per cent protocol for students from public schools, which creates an avenue for students from deprived and hard-to-reach locations across the country to be placed in Grade A Schools.
He described the policy as very good and called for it to be protected and firmed up so that it would continue to support and create opportunity for students from less endowed schools, who usually do not do well during the BECE through no fault of theirs, as a result of the status of their schools
The Executive Director suggested that since the issue of challenges facing schools in deprived areas in the country would not be ending now, there is a need for the enactment of a government policy to protect such students so that they can also have access to top-notch schools, as they move up the education ladder, since they did not get the same solid foundation as those in the urban areas through no fault of theirs.
The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Mr Kofi Asare, also added his voice to the gains made by the Education Ministry in the smooth execution of the School Selection and Placement exercise.
He commended the Education Minister for the swift measures put in place, after concerns were raised that some people took advantage of the desperation of parents to extort money from them for placement.
Mr Asare was not happy with the 30 per cent protocol for students in public schools since it does not lead to fairness.
He, therefore, called for it to be reviewed with support from all stakeholders to ensure parity among all Ghanaian students irrespective of where they were located.
Staff Sergeant George Yeboah of the Ghana Armed Forces Education Unit, on behalf of parents, was happy with this year’s placement exercise but called for the number of staff at the centre to be increased, so that people would not waste much time.
He also called for the staff of the resolution centre to be trained in customer service care so they would be able to assist the anxious parents who rush to the centre to resolve their issues.
By Felix Baidoo
