The Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) National Coordinator has advised that students who will resort to the self-placement process after initial selection processes fail must be diligent in information entering.
According to Mr. Mark Sasu-Mensah, the self-placement system is built such that a school that is marked as available for vacancy is able to disable itself from the list of available schools once its limit is reached.
He said this as part of the sensitisation programme the CSSPS under the auspices of the Ghana Education Service is carrying out across the 16 regions of the country to ensure that students who are applying for secondary level educational institutions meet the requirements of the CSSPS.
A student may have according to the CSSPS criteria for selection chosen 6 schools he or she hopes to be placed in but may not get any of them.
According to Mr. Sasu-Mensah, the student has an opportunity to select from among schools that have vacancy through the self-placement module.
Under the module, the prospective secondary education student has “unlimited access to rechoose” schools they have selected wrongly from the portal.
However, that unlimited access has its negative implications because the vacancies in the schools may not be enough.
The Coordinator explained that the student may have wanted a boarding school but mistakenly chosen a day school instead. When the day school is not changed on time, and the vacancy becomes full, the school will automatically be removed from the list of school. This means the student will be placed in the day school when the placement is out contrary to his or her wish.
He therefore warned that “when you have access to the school, make sure you do everything rightly” because of the high traffic the school may generate, leading to its removal from the portal for reason of full vacancy.
Mr. Sasu-Mensah has also warned examination officers and school authorities to desist from choosing schools for students under circumstances where the students make wrong choices.
He said they should consult the students to confirm the choice of school before submitting same to the authorities in charge of the placement to avoid compounding problems for both the students and the authorities.
