GES Declare 250,000 Vacancies For Qualified BECE Candidates

BECE candidates

250,000 vacancies have been declared by senior high schools in the country for the admission of qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates for the 2013-2014 academic year.

With the vacancies declared, in addition to vacancies yet to be declared by secondary technical schools, as well as technical and vocational institutes, second cycle institutions should be able to absorb all qualified BECE candidates who wrote this year’s examination.

A total of 391,082 candidates wrote this year’s BECE and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has so far released provisional results of 383, 812 candidates.

A senior official at the Ghana Education Service (GES) told the Daily Graphic last Friday that the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) was ready to place BECE candidates into senior high schools.

“We are ready for this year’s placement exercise. We are only waiting for the raw scores or merit list from WAEC to do the placements,” it said.

The GES last Thursday said the placement of qualified BECE candidates into senior high schools would begin by Friday, September 20.2013.
It therefore entreated parents, guardians and candidates to be patient and desist from going to the CSSPS secretariat or the GES headquarters to check on the placement.

According to the official, once the GES took delivery of the raw scores or merit list, the CSSPS secretariat should be able to finish the placement exercise by October 1.2013.

Smooth exercise?

Regarding measures that had been put in place to ensure a smooth exercise, the official said the exercise had always been smooth but for the interference of parents.

He said the failure of parents to accept the placement of their children into certain schools had brought about problems.

“All parents want the first choice schools but that is not possible. This is because of the large number of students and inadequate facilities.That is why we have second, third and fourth choice and so on,” he said.

The official, therefore, appealed to parents to make this year’s exercise smooth and successful.

30 per cent quota

The official further indicated that the placement of 30 per cent of candidates from the catchment areas of senior high schools would be done first, after which the rest of the candidates (70 per cent) would be placed.

He, however, said both placements would be released at the same time.