Features
Senior High School placement system fraught with corruption?
The Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) was introduced in the year 2005 after two years of piloting to replace the manual system which was so hectic and difficult to manage.
The objective of this computerized system has been to fully automate school placement process in order to reduce human errors and to promote efficiency and fairness in the selection and placement of students in the Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the country.
RAW SCORE AS DETERMINING
FACTOR
The CSSPS, uses the raw scores of candidates of the Basic Education Certificates Examination (BECE) as a determinant factor for the selection process. This is done automatically based on aggregate of the candidate including the choice of school and programme made by the candidate. For a candidate to qualify for placement, he or she has to satisfy the total raw score of not less than 200.
Placement is done on the basis of the vacancies declared by the schools and once these vacancies have been filled by the CSSPS in a particular school, it is unable to do any further placement. If a candidate’s aggregate falls within the merit of the programme chosen for the first choice, the CSSPS, then checks the student’s preferred residential status for space and places him or her accordingly. If the desired residential status is full, the system moves him or her to the second choice.
SIGNIFICANCE OF SCHOOL PLACEMENT
It is significant to note that work experience and student placement programmes are designed to provide the student with an opportunity to help develop positive insight, experience and skills that may assist him or her with future employment or to make informed decisions regarding his or her performed career choice.
Prior to the introduction of the CSSPS, placement of graduates in SHS, was done manually. Heads of SHS, would have to gather at regional conferences to go through records of individual candidates as presented by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and their basic schools and hand-pick students’ performance cards and communicate feedback to parents and guardians, usually through school notice boards.
MANUAL PLACEMENT
In fact, the manual system of placement has its own challenges and disadvantages which are cumbersome in character. For instance, a parent whose child chose schools such as St Augustines College in Cape Coast in the Central Region, Ghana Secondary School in Koforidua in the Eastern Region and Tamale SHS in the Northern Region, in that order of preference, would have to travel all the way to those schools, just to find out which of them had selected his or her child. That to me was so stressful, herculean and difficult task to accomplish.
Besides, there were other weaknesses within that system such as school heads taking longer time to select students based on performance, difficulty of school heads giving equal attention to all candidates at the same time and rising cases of favouritism rather than on performance merit among others. The uncontrolled frustration of parents to the old system, motivated and encouraged the government at that time through the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) together with think tanks within the education sector to come out with the CSSPS as a way of minimising if not to eliminate the stress, toil and sweat of parents and guardians who were anxious to provide their children with good, credible and quality education.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF CSSPS
Indeed, the new computerised system ever since its introduction has stood the test of time and facilitated the placement of students in the Junior High level to that of the SHSs across the country. The Free Education policy by the government has also increased the level of enrolment from the basic to the SHS level, thus putting a lot of stress on the enrollment of students into the SHS and the tertiary education levels. The high level of enrollment has left in its trail difficult moments and brought about corruption and other serious malpractices within the school placement system. Among challenges raised by some parents and guardians was the fact that male students were placed in female schools and vice versa, students placed in day schools in locations far from their homes as well as the inability to successfully go through the self- placement process.
SHORTCOMINGS OF CSSPS
In fact, the CSSPS, has become fertile grounds for bribery and corruption among parents, guardians and officials managing the system in our dear country. The major challenge facing the system has been the human factor in terms of refusal of parents, guardians and students to accept placement into schools apart from their chosen endowed schools. There were numerous instances in which parents and guardians have thronged to resolution centres in the country, furiously protesting against the CSSPS which they claimed had denied their children and wards access to their preferred choice of schools, even though they believed their wards had made the grades. Most parents continue to criticise the system saying that it has messed things up just because their children could not be selected to their preferred schools.
BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION BY PARENTS
Aside all these challenges, some parents were ready to pay huge sums of moneys to officials handling the system including watchmen and security guards in an attempt to induce them to facilitate the placement of their children into the Category A SHSs such as Achimota School, Prempeh College, Pope John SHS, Opoku Ware SHS, Aburi Girls SHS, St Augustine College, Legon PRESEC Boys, among others. That is indeed outrageous and criminal in nature and should not be tolerated or encouraged whatsoever in our educational system.
Recent indications on social media spoke about the arrest of eight persons by the police following Joy News and Fourth Estate’s latest investigative piece “School for Placement for Sale” which uncovered widespread fraud in the CSSPS. The suspects have since been charged and arraigned before court. Investigations revealed that some parents paid up to GH¢20,000 to get their children enrolled in top-tier SHSs. In some cases, people paid as much as Gh¢10,000 to maintain a slot, according to the investigation. That case is pending before the law courts and, therefore, it is advisable not to comment further but to live it to the judiciary to determine the outcome.
CASE OF CORRUPTION PENDING IN COURT
While we allow the court to do justice to the case and bring the culprits to book in order to bring sanity into the CSSPS, it is equally important to call on the MoE and the GES to find ways of addressing the root cause of the problems that have brought about corruption within the system. The authorities must provide inputs in time to the least endowed schools and also upgrade the infrastructural facilities in these schools to make them more attractive to students. By so doing, the pressure on the highly-endowed schools will reduce as most parents are anxious to enroll their children in some of this grade A SHSs in the country. Besides, there is the need to revisit the policy of developing some of these SHSs in each region into model schools with all the modern facilities required in a standard second cycle schools.
ADVICE TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS
It is equally important to caution parents to refrain from bribing the officials in-charge of the CSSPS to influence them to change the schools of their children even though they knew very well that they did not select some of these grade A schools as their first choice. Parents need to exercise maximum patience and allow the system to work perfectly since it is far better than the old manual system which was fraught with teething challenges. More importantly, officials working at the CSSPS secretariat must be circumspect in their work by showing diligence and be incorruptible in their daily activities.
The CSSPS is currently the best option for placement of students into the SHSs in the country and we must all support it for better results. Let us free the system of the eminent corruption in any form.
Contact email/WhatsApp of author:
ataani2000@yahoo.com
0277753946/0248933366
By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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