School placement For Sale: Systems breach and human interference must stop

From all indications, the selfishness of some of those working with the CSSPS has contributed to the illegal sale of school placements. Again, the revelations made by the Fourth Estate showed clearly that the CSSPS has not only been breached and abused but also more than the required human interference has been allowed, leading to the manipulation of the merit-based placement system.

Speaking on the development on Joy News, Mr. Divine Kpe, Programme Manager at the Africa Education Watch, said the Computerized school placement system has been breached by individuals and syndicates.

Manasseh Azure Awuni of the Forth Estate disclosed during an interview on Joy News that “the CSSPS system has been undermined over the years and each time the issue is raided, the authorities call for evidence, hence the decision by the Forth Estate to carry out the investigative piece to provide evidence and connect the disjointed dots as far as the issue was concerned.”

On the issue of who must take the blame, the Former Director General of the GES, Professor Opoku Amankwa said “If there is any fraud in the system, he and Dr. Yaw Adutwum should take responsibility” His comment was based on the fact that the two of them (Professor Opoku Amankwa and Dr. Yaw Adutwum) were the only persons who could do placements and change placement into such schools.

Manasseh added that the School Placement for sale is a widespread illegality that has been allowed to negatively impact a system of placing students in schools.

We should all be worried about this canker because, what it also means is that, your ward can be placed in a good school but those who have been altering the placements can possibly swap your ward’s placements with another student who does not deserve a particular school at a fee.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng, has reacted to the infamous School Placement for Sale investigative piece by the Fourth Estate. In his first comment on the piece, Kwasi Kwarteng said the Ministry was going to make an official comment after the full piece has been seen by the ministry. While speaking to the GNA on the matter, he did reveal that the ministry had not had the privilege of seeing the full version of the investigative piece.

“The Ministry cannot respond to a video if we have not watched the full version of the documentary.”  He stated.

He was quick to add that, although the ministry has seen some portions of the video, it was yet to have access to the full documentary and respond appropriately.

The investigative video which has been in the public domain since Monday, 30^th January ahead of the 2022 School Placement revealed how parents, guardians, and officials in charge of school placement take advantage of the systems’ weakness to make changes to placements and charge or pay huge sums of money for the illegal service.

Information reaching Ghana Education News indicates that as of 2021, the Minister of Education and the Director General of the GES were the only officers who has access to category A and B schools into which candidates were placed. They were the only officers who could approve placements as well.

However, the illegality went on either unchecked or unnoticed. During the AM show on Joy News Monitored by Ghana Education News, it came to light that, the D-G of the GES ordered an investigation into the fraudulent altering of school placements when the issue was made known to him however the NIB and the CID of the Ghana Police halted their investigations.

In the investigative video, it came to light that the school placements for sale were auctioned for as high as GHS20,000 per placement changed to GHS 8500 for parents to get their children placed in schools of their preference.

READ: Schools should get ready for the 2022 World Read Aloud Day – Mr Mathias Tulasi

The Ministry of Education, in a press release dated January 29, 2023, called on all and sundry not to pay anyone to secure school placement. The school placement for sale video has dented the credibility of the school placement and put its so-called merit-based school selection and placement process into disrepute.

READ: 2023 BECE School Placement Release Date, How to Check & do Self Placement -GES & MoE

From all indications, the CSSPS has become a play toy in the hands of the powerful, less influential officials and no bodies in whose hands the power lies to make decisions and to influence changes. The Systems breach and human interference must stop, but let us wait to see if the same crimes will not be committed by the same people when the 2023 School Placements are released.