Former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, has blamed the difficulties surrounding the 2026 SHS/TVET placement exercise on what he says are poor and unclear guidelines for selecting and placing students.
According to him, the placement system needs clearer and better-planned rules to make sure that large numbers of BECE graduates are not left without school placements.
Speaking in an interview on September 12, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said the number of schools students are allowed to choose should also be reviewed.
He explained that the number of choices given to BECE candidates has changed over the years. However, he said simply increasing the number of choices does not necessarily give students more flexibility or improve their chances of getting placed in their preferred schools.
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa noted that many students tend to choose the same school repeatedly instead of making use of all the options available to them.
“This year, we have gotten ourselves into this chaos because of the guidelines that they gave. The guidelines over the years were to select three schools but at the time that I was leaving, it was five but even that we have always realised that for about 70 to 80 percent of the students, if you give them 10 options, then you tell them that you can repeat a school as many times as you want, 90 percent of them will repeat their first choice.
“So when you are doing the guidelines, some of these things must guide you. This year, they were given 8 choices and it doesn’t mean anything to most of them. If you hear some of the stories, you will hear some say that they didn’t choose the schools they were given and they bring the form and you realise that the person chose it.”
His comments come at a time when many parents and students are worried about the 2026 placement exercise.
Reports indicate that more than 55,000 BECE graduates have so far not been placed in senior high schools or TVET institutions.
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa believes the situation shows the need for the authorities to take another look at the placement guidelines and make changes that will give students a better chance of securing school placements.
