Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has appealed to parents and students facing difficulties with the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) to remain patient as authorities work to address individual placement concerns. According to the Minister, the pressure on the system is largely a result of the wide gap between the number of applications received and the available spaces in schools.
“If you have applications of 313,000 against vacancies of 76,000, you have a real difficulty accommodating everybody within the numbers,” Mr Iddrisu said. He urged affected parents and students to exercise patience and understanding while the CSSPS team reviews their concerns.
“So be patient, be tolerant, be accommodating. I’ve asked the CSSPS team to be humane,” he said. Mr Iddrisu acknowledged that some students had been placed in programmes other than those they selected but assured that such cases could be reviewed where possible. He cited the case of a student who had chosen General Science at Ghana National College but was instead placed in Home Economics.
“I just listened to a young student who wants to do General Science; he’s been given Home Economics. He has his preference of Ghana National,” he said. The Minister assured affected students that the CSSPS team would assess individual cases and resolve those that could be addressed based on available spaces.
“Some problems, indeed, we are capable of resolving every problem presented to the CSSPS team,” Mr Iddrisu said. He also stressed that the placement process was being allowed to operate independently, without direct intervention from the leadership of the Education Ministry.
“Unlike in the past as minister, with my deputy and even the Director General of Education, none of us is on the system. It is to allow it to operate independently, autonomously and transparently,” he said. His comments come amid concerns over the 2026 CSSPS exercise, with students and parents calling for adjustments to placements and solutions to cases involving students who were not assigned to their preferred schools or programmes.
