CSSPS coordinator explains why thousands of students are facing SHS placement problems

The Coordinator of Ghana’s Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), Shahif Sulleman, has explained some of the major challenges behind this year’s Senior High School placement exercise, including the shortage of spaces in popular schools and the difficulty of matching students with their preferred choices.

Speaking in an interview with Joy News monitored by MyRoyalFM.com, Sulleman said the CSSPS team is working to ensure that students who qualify for secondary education are not deliberately left out of the placement process.

His comments come at a time when the 2026 Senior High School placement exercise has generated concerns among parents, students and other stakeholders, particularly over students who have struggled to secure places in their preferred schools.

According to Sulleman, the immediate goal is to make sure students complete the placement process and are ready to report to school on September 18, 2026.

He explained that the placement authorities understand the importance of getting the process right because parents and students need enough time to prepare for admission.

“release of placement uh parents, candidates uh and uh prospect prospective senior high school uh students all want to find uh schools for themselves and ensure that they are ready for admissions and report to school come September 18, 2026. So we are trying to ensure that that is done and done well and we ensure that adequate measures are put in place to not deliberately you know h left out anybody who intends to pursue secondary education in Ghana.”

55,000 students initially faced exclusion

One of the major issues discussed by the CSSPS coordinator was the situation involving students who recorded a grade nine in English and Mathematics.

Sulleman explained that the initial placement process would have excluded about 55,000 students who fell within that category.

However, the Ministry of Education intervened and created a way for those students to be included in the placement exercise.

“Okay. So on that yesterday the honorable deputy minister for education briefed the country on the release of the school placement results and he provided uh details and further information on the number of candidates placed on the vacancy situation and of course on the candidates who uh for probably some reasons getting nine in English and math wouldn’t have been part of the placement and the ministry in uh wanting to ensure that we don’t uh leave them out has actually come into intervene to ensure that these 55,000 who based on the initial run of exclusion from uh with nine in English and mathematics wouldn’t have gone through have provided a leeway for them and they are part of the placement.”

The decision means that students who would otherwise have been left out because of the initial criteria have been given an opportunity to participate in the placement process.

For many parents, the issue is important because placement is not only about securing admission but also about ensuring that qualified young people are able to continue their education after completing the Basic Education Certificate Examination.

The bigger problem is the shortage of spaces

Sulleman said the difficulties being experienced this year cannot be solved simply by changing the way students select schools.

He explained that the CSSPS had previously hoped that allowing students to see their results first and then choose schools would help reduce some of the pressure surrounding the placement process.

However, the experience has shown that the deeper problem is the number of available spaces in some of the country’s most popular schools.

“Well, that was our thinking that maybe by making the students to get their resource first and then choose giving them the opportunity to choose their schools, it will solve this problem. But it does appear that alone wouldn’t solve the problem until we are able to improve infrastructure in the category A schools and then uplift or upgrade some of the category B schools to have enough space for students who want to be to have facilities that meet their demand,”he said in the interview.

This is one of the most important explanations from the CSSPS coordinator because it points to a problem beyond the computerised placement system itself.

If a large number of students choose the same schools but those schools have limited capacity, the placement system cannot give every student a place simply because that school was their first choice.

The number of available classrooms, dormitories and other facilities ultimately affects how many students a school can admit.

313,000 students applied for limited Category A spaces

The scale of the challenge becomes clearer when the number of students seeking places in the most popular schools is compared with the available spaces.

Sulleman indicated that about 313,000 candidates applied, while even doubling the intake of Category A schools would only take the available capacity to around 150,000.

That means there would still be a significant gap between demand and the number of spaces available in the schools that attract the highest number of applicants.

The figures help explain why some students with strong results can still find it difficult to secure their preferred schools.

It is not necessarily because the computer system has ignored their results. In many cases, the problem is that several students with competitive results are seeking the same limited number of places.

The CSSPS coordinator acknowledged that this is a problem that has now been identified and said steps are being taken to address it.

Government plans infrastructure expansion

According to Sulleman, the government intends to use the STAR project to address some of the infrastructure problems affecting the placement system.

He said the plan involves expanding and improving some Category A schools while also upgrading selected Category B and C schools.

The idea is to create more schools and facilities that can provide the level of education and infrastructure students and parents are looking for.

“And then we are taking steps to fix the problem. Mind you, this is a problem that this current administration has inherited. So you don’t promise Ghanaians that you want to reset and then you come and then you are confronted with a challenge and then you let the status quo remain.”

“That would have been an indictment on us. But at the moment we have decided to take steps to solve the problem. And how are we going to solve the problem? We are going to use the star project to upgrade to improve expand infrastructure in some of these category A schools and then upgrade some of the category B and C schools to the status where students will to the status of the achimotes the preex so that we will now have a lot of students having a vacancy or space in the in their preferred schools.”

The proposal, if successfully implemented, could change the pressure placed on the country’s most sought-after schools.

Rather than having thousands of students competing for a small number of places at a few Category A schools, improving other institutions could give parents and students more attractive alternatives.

Sulleman said the government intends to address the infrastructure problem within two academic calendars.

Why a student with a better aggregate gets priority

Sulleman also explained how the CSSPS decides which student gets a place when several candidates choose the same school.

He said the system first ranks candidates according to their aggregate scores.

The ranking runs from aggregate six through to aggregate 54, with the lower aggregate representing the stronger result.

After ranking the students, the system considers their selected schools, programmes and the availability of spaces, including residential capacity.

Sulleman gave an example involving two students who want the same school

“Okay. So from what I see, I think we are just having the same conversation again and it appears it keeps coming back because the general public doesn’t really have the full information and may not really appreciate how the whole process works. And we continue to explain that the logic for the placement basically has to do with first we rank the candidates based on their aggregate scores.”

“So like I mentioned last week from six to say 54 which being the the bottom. Then we match that against their choice selections, against the programs and against the availability of spaces in terms of residence. You run candidates based on the aggregate scores, you run the placement based on the aggregate score and the raw score.”

“If a candidate gets an aggregate 10 and another gets an aggregate 11 candidates want to go into the same school then preference will be given to the one with the 10. Now in cases where you have two candidates with aggregate 10 both having aggregate 10 then we fall on the raw score to now differentiate who has a better grade than the other to do the placement for them.”

In simple terms, a student with aggregate 10 will normally have an advantage over a student with aggregate 11 when both are competing for the same available place.

However, if both students have the same aggregate, the system goes deeper into their raw scores to determine which candidate has the stronger performance.

This means that the placement process is not based only on the school a student chooses.

The system has to consider several factors at the same time, including academic performance, the student’s choices, the programme selected and whether the school has space available.

Why choosing a Category A school does not guarantee admission

One of the biggest misunderstandings surrounding school placement is the belief that selecting a school means a student is guaranteed admission there.

That is not how the CSSPS system works.

A student may select a highly competitive school as a first choice, but that does not automatically create a place for the student.

If the school has fewer spaces than the number of qualified students competing for those spaces, the CSSPS must use its placement rules to determine who receives the available places.

This is why academic performance becomes particularly important when demand is higher than capacity.

A student can therefore perform well in the BECE and still fail to secure a particular school if many other students with similar or better results have selected the same institution.

The issue becomes even more difficult in schools where boarding spaces are limited.

Watch the full interview below