How SHS Placement is Computed, Protocol and more – 2023

The government of Ghana has made is entirely free to attend senior high school, this opportunity is available to students who write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) at JHS and meet the grade requirements to get admitted into a public senior high school under the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The process of analyzing the BECE grades and placing students in their respective senior high schools is done automatically through the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), administered by the GES.

How SHS Placement takes place, step by step

Below is a breakdown of how SHS placement takes place, the entire process

1. Selection of School by Candidates

BECE candidates select the senior high schools they would like to attend with assistance from their parents or guardians and their teachers and school authorities.

Every BECE candidate is required to select 5 different senior high schools from the schools register provided by GES. This process require you to choose according to your most preferred senior high to your least preferred school. Students will also have to choose their programme of study (General Science, General Arts, Business, etc) and the residential status either day or boarding.

BECE candidates are also required to choose a compulsory day school which falls in Category D of the GES senior high school categorization, this school must be within your community.

2. Parents or Guardians Sign Off

Parents/guardians are required to sign off the school selection form and have it submitted to the candidate’s junior high school headmaster. Parents/guardians must keep a copy of this form.

3. Officials Upload to WAEC Database

After the school choices are made by students (BECE candidates), district exam officers will now upload to the database of WAEC.

4. Verification of School Choice

After a while, Ghana Education Service will release a short-code via SMS to candidates to help them obtain the list of schools, programmes of study and residential status the candidate has selected.

This stage, will enable candidates and their parents/guardians to check any incorrect inputs that may have been sent to WAEC and quickly update that.

5. SHS Placement

After the release of the BECE results by WAEC, the entire SHS placement process begins. This process happens using candidate’s aggregate from four core subjects (English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies), and two of their best grades from their elective subjects.

The vacancies declared earlier by each school are then fed into the CSSPS to compute and designate candidates to their respective schools based on their grades, this process is called Automatic Placement.

BECE candidates who do not get school through Automatic Placement can try the other two modes of school placement on the CSSPS, Self Placement and Manual Placement.

How Automatic Placement takes place on CSSPS

Below is a guide on how the Computerized School Selection and Placement System choose students for their respective schools based on grades and other factors automatically.

1. Minimum Aggregate: The CSSPS automatically choose respective schools for candidates based on the minimum aggregate required by the school for the choice of programme. If the first choice fails, it will continue to the candidate’s second choice till it finds a school that meets the grades of the candidate.
   
2. The Number of Grade Ones: For example, if 400 students with Aggregate 6 are competing for Science in School A and there are only 180 available slots for Science, the ranking will be done such that those with Nine Ones, will gain admission, followed by those with Eight Ones, and so on.
   
3. Raw Score: If there is a further need to break a tie, this will be done in descending order with respect to the raw scores obtained in the best six subject.
   
4. Subject Performance: A further tie-breaking, where necessary, will then follow taking into consideration the best grades obtained in the Core Subjects, in a manner as follows; English, then Mathematics, then Integrated Science, then Social Studies.

Click here to see more on how to do Self-Placement on CSSPS

Protocol Allocation for SHS Placement

Every year, there are some vacancies left for protocol so stakeholders “big men” of the school can bring in some candidates. This is done to serve these stakeholders “big men” of the school.

How do I get SHS placement through Protocol?

To get SHS Placement through protocol, you must consult someone who is a stakeholder in a senior high school, like a pastor, chief or community leader to assist you with their privileges.

Where do BECE candidates select schools from?

BECE candidates select their choice of schools from the school register provided for the year by Ghana Education Service.

Summary

The SHS Placement process is a broad one that stretch over months to compute and assign schools. Candidates and parents/guardians are required to take time and make sure this process is well done so they do not make unnecessary mistakes that will hinder their chances of getting placement. However, if you did not get placement, you still have a chance with Self-Placement and Manual Placement on the CSSPS.

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