GES Blames Students, Parents Following 'Wrong' School Placements

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has denied reports it has placed a mass number of students in Senior High Schools that they didn’t choose.

The service also says it is not responsible for students who were placed in day, instead of, boarding schools.

According to the Public Relations Officer of GES, many students chose day schools with the hope of increasing their chances of getting their preferred choice.

“The system allows students to choose the same school twice, as day and then as boarding. Many of them used that opportunity with the hope of changing from day to boarding when given admission as day students but it is not possible,” Cassandra Twum Ampofo said.

Read: ‘It is clever’; Prof Adei lauds double-track system for SHS

Speaking on the AM Show on the Joy News channel on Multi TV Tuesday, Ms Ampofo explained that when you choose the day option, it means you have to commute from home to the school daily.

She, however, explained that there are some genuine cases where mistakes happened during the placement process and anyone with such a case should report to their district office to have the problem rectified.

“…but if we investigate and find out you chose that option, nothing can be done about it,” she stressed.

Ms Ampofo added that the same situation applies to all those who claim to be posted to schools they didn’t choose. “They should come to us and we will check if they chose the school or not, if the problem is from us we will rectify it,” she assured.

Withheld results
Speaking on why some students and in some cases the entire school hasn’t had any student placed in Senior High Schools, Ms Ampofo noted that it may be due to one or more results being withheld by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

She added that once WAEC releases those results to the GES, the students will be placed.

"Most of the results withheld include the core subjects like Mathematics, and we use the four core subjects plus best two to do the placements so if that is withheld, we cannot do anything about it," she explained.

Changing the course of study
Ms Ampofo also told AM Show host Roland Walker that it is possible for students to change their courses of study if they dislike what they were offered.

“They just need to have a conversation with the headmaster of the school. If they have been given a course they don’t like it should be possible to change it,” she stated.

Meanwhile, the double track system takes off today [Tuesday] with the first track of students expected to report to school today and break on November 8 for the second track to report then.

The GES has, however, advised all students to go to their schools and get registered with the first track.