Ghana education official calls for SHS placement policy reform

Kwesi Kwarteng, a former Public Relations Officer for Ghana's Ministry of Education, is calling for a review of the Senior High School (SHS) placement policy. He is advocating for a gradual reversal of the current requirement that Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates must pass both English Language and Mathematics to qualify for placement in Senior High Schools or Senior High Technical Schools.

This proposal follows the exclusion of approximately 55,000 candidates from the 2026 placement process. Sherif Sulemana, the Coordinator of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) Secretariat, confirmed that while roughly 565,000 of the 620,000 candidates met the requirements, about 55,000 students were left without a placement.

Kwarteng argues that the high number of excluded students is a result of restrictive placement policies rather than a reflection of mass academic failure. He noted that under previous administration policies, students who passed one of the two core subjects were permitted to proceed to secondary school to improve their performance.