This was disclosed by the Deputy National Coordinator of the Free SHS Secretariat, Dr. Belinda Glover, who cautioned that any attempt to manipulate the school placement system would not be tolerated.

According to Dr. Glover, the suspects were apprehended after they tried to influence the placement of their wards by presenting multiple request sheets, a clear breach of the established process.

“Some of them come here with five or more placement sheets. Beyond 2, you are in for business because you can’t tell me you have five children all entering senior high school at the same time. Even with that, we followed up on some of these cases and found that they collect money from people and come here pretending to be parents. Once we detect that, we involve the police.”

Dr. Glover added that the perpetrators have been handed over to the police, together with the bribes they offered.

She cautioned the public against paying to alter placements, stressing that the system has strong monitoring measures in place to detect irregularities and fraud.

“In as much as we are here to help the public, we must also be smart. Anyone caught attempting to tamper with the process will face the law.

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In a statement, the Service directed all Regional Directors of Education to promptly relay the information to District Directors and Heads of Schools within their jurisdictions.

GES emphasized that student admissions must strictly follow the placement lists generated by the CSSPS Secretariat.

“No school is permitted to admit students outside the official placement list without prior written approval from the Service,” the statement added.

Students who have been placed are expected to report to their respective schools from October 18, 2025, for registration.

Heads of schools have been tasked with ensuring a smooth registration process in accordance with the guidelines provided.

The Service warned that any infractions, including unauthorized admissions, will attract appropriate administrative sanctions. Regional and District Directors are also required to monitor the process and provide supervisory support during the admission period.

GES assured stakeholders of its reliance on their cooperation to ensure a transparent and successful admission process for the 2025 academic year.

Read the full statement below:

SEE ALSO

According to the Ministry, placements will be determined by candidates’ aggregate scores in six subjects, with raw scores applied to break any ties.

Officials cautioned the public against fraudsters, stressing that no payment is required for placement and urging parents and students to report extortion attempts to the security agencies.

A choice confirmation window has been opened from August 27 to September 1, 2025, to allow candidates to verify or correct details such as gender, school, or programme before final placements are completed.

The results of the placement exercise are scheduled to be released on September 15, with resolution centres opening the following day.

The Ministry emphasised its readiness to ensure a smooth transition for all candidates, noting that first-year students are expected to report to school between October 18 and 20, 2025.

Read the statement below:

For Immediate Release
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION ANNOUNCES TRANSPARENT PLACEMENT SYSTEM FOR 2025 BECE CANDIDATES

ACCRA,—Following the release of the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results, the Ministry of Education is providing a comprehensive update on the school placement exercise for all successful candidates. The Ministry assures all candidates and their families that the process will be fair, transparent, and strictly merit-based, ensuring every student has the opportunity to pursue their educational goals without discrimination.

Merit-Based Placement System

The 2025 Placement will be determined by a candidate’s aggregate score from six subjects: the four core subjects (English, Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies) and the two best elective subjects. In the event of a tie, the system will use raw scores for a final ranking.

Zero Tolerance for Fraud

The Ministry wishes to emphasize that the 2025 placement exercise is strictly merit-based, and no payment is required for placement. The public is urged to be vigilant and report any individuals attempting to extort money under the guise of Ministry officials, GES, TVETs, CSSPS, or FSHS. All fraudulent activity should be reported immediately to security agencies.

Roadmap and Choice Confirmation Process

To ensure accuracy, the secretariat has launched a choice confirmation process from August 27 to September 1, 2025. This allows candidates to verify their selections and correct any errors in their gender, school, or program choices. Candidates can confirm their choices on the official portal: www.cssps.gov.gh. An explainer video will also be made available to guide students and guardians through this process.
The full roadmap for the placement exercise is as follows:
* August 23, 2025: BECE Results released
* August 27 – September 1, 2025: Text confirmation of choices
* September 15, 2025: Placement results published online
* September 16, 2025: Call centers and resolution centers activated
* October 18-20, 2025: First-year student reopening

The Ministry is ready for the placement process and asks candidates and the public to remain calm. We are committed to making this a smooth and successful transition for all.

Source: AdomOnline

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According to a statement from the Ministry, of the 563,339 results submitted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), 553,155 candidates qualified for placement.

Of these, 447,698 (representing 80.93%) were automatically placed in one of their selected schools.

An additional 104,918 eligible candidates were unable to be matched with any of their chosen schools. These students are advised to access the Self-Placement platform to select a school of their choice.

To check placement status, qualified students should visit the official CSSPS website at https://www.cssps.gov.gh or https://www.cssps.org, enter their ten-digit index number followed by the completion year (e.g., for 2024, use the format 123456789024), and click “Submit” to view the placement result.

The Ministry further informs the public that in addition to the National Solution Centre at GNAT Hall, Adabraka, Accra, and the 16 Regional Solution Centres, assistance can also be sought via the helpline at 0308258001 for any concerns.

Below is the full statement.

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Speaking on Adom FM Dwaso Nsem show, he noted that there are enough school slots for all eligible students.

“Eligible students placed so far are 477, 772 and there 634,520 vacancies in various schools opened for placement. Parents should keep calm everyone will be placed in schools. There is no rush; everyone will go to school,” he said.

Mr Kwarteng noted that, over 80% students have successfully been placed through the automatic placement system as against last year’s 69.24%.

He added that, the introduction of the national prospectus has also helped.

“This year, candidates chose 11 schools to ensure every one gets placed. That has also accounted for the high school placement rate. Only 18% are doing self placement this year,” he remarked.

“Previously prospectus were left to the school’s discretion but that has changed. Some items are not essential need  and have been scrapped. The prospectus was attached to the CSPSS slip. Uniforms are readily available at the schools on arrival,” he added.

Mr. Kwarteng indicated that, most students interested in Science courses have been placed.

“We created more vacancies because the whole aim was to double science enrollment for sciences from 12 to 24%. Within the 21^st century, globally economies have been able to transform using education as a bait for socio-economic transformation used sciences. So we doubled the enrollment for sciences at SHS level…most science students had vacancies,” he said.

The Ministry’s PRO revealed more than 50,000 would have been denied admission because of prospectus last year, hence GES’s introduction of the national prospectus.

“GES does not impose schools on students even with the self placement on the CSPSS portal you’re given variety to choose from,” he assured.

Mr. Kwarteng urged parents and guardians to visit the Ministry’s resolution centres or call centres for problems to be addressed.

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To him, the grading of schools has caused the need for students to be placed in the “better schools”.

“It is the doing of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service that we have the grade A schools.”

Speaking on Adom TV‘s Badwam Show, he said the “Free SHS” policy is gradually collapsing private schools.

“If you want your child to get good grades don’t allow them to write under a private school.

“The private schools are collapsing as a result of Free SHS. And one of them is that the grades private schools are now getting discourages parents,” he said.

He went on: “Parents believe when their children register with public school the probability of getting good grades is higher than being in a private school.”

Hundreds of parents of students who sat for the 2022 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) on February 16, 2023, thronged the GNAT Hall in Accra for placement.

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The centre was set up by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to help with both self-placement and replacement of students in available schools in all categories, except category ‘A’ schools.

A total of 165,601 candidates will have to do self-placement because they could not be matched to their school of choice, according to the GES.

With the 2022 BECE results released, students are anxious in getting their preferred choices of school they selected during the 2023 Computerized School Placement exercise.

In view of this, the MoE is cautioning parents not to send any form of payment to unscrupulous individuals with lofty promises of ensuring placements.

In a press statement issued to that effect, the Ministry said the School Selection and Placement process is solely based on merits and no considerations whatsoever.

The Ministry further assured the public of transparent, equitable and merit-based placement.

Find attached press statement below:

GES in a release signed by the Head of the Public Relations Unit, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, explained the rationale behind the new procedure.

According to the release, ”this verification process is to ensure accuracy in students’ choice information before they are placed in their selected Second Cycle Schools.”

The verification exercise, which commenced on 14th January, 2023, will end on 22nd January, 2023.

GES noted as part of the verification exercise, “students, parents/guardians will receive SMS message from the CSSPS which contains web portal: https://csspsverify.com and USSD short code number *899*88# with 4digit token number.

“Students who may have errors in their initial selection should call 0556541525 or click on the edit button available on the web portal after their selection details are displayed with a copy of the original selection form.

“Students can also send an email with the copy of the original selection form to cssps2021@gmail com.”

GES cautioned students that the verification exercise is not to change schools but to confirm the initial choices selected.

Placement

Following the release of the BECE results by the West African Examination Council, the placement process begins using the candidate’s aggregate from his or her four core subjects (English, Maths, Integrated Science and Social Studies) plus the two best grades from his or her elective subjects.

The vacancies declared earlier by each school are then fed into the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

There are three modes by which placement is done under the CSSPS: Automatic Placement, Self-Placement and Manual Placement.

A. Automatic Placement

This is the process by which the CSSPS places the students by merit into one of their chosen schools in descending order. This is run automatically without any manual intervention.

If the candidate’s aggregate falls within the merit of the programme chosen for their first choice, the CSSPS then checks the student’s preferred residential status for space and places him or her accordingly. If the desired residential status is full, the CSSPS moves him or her to the second choice.

For instance, if a student with aggregate 8 would otherwise get a place in school A but has chosen the more competitive boarding option and space is full because other candidates with a better aggregate have secured placement into the boarding house, then the system will not place him or her on day status in that school because the DAY option was not the candidate’s choice.

The system will move to their second choice school to attempt to get both their programme and residential choice. If unsuccessful, the system will proceed to their third choice and so on. The process is repeated until the student is placed.

Where a candidate has chosen a school both as boarding and as their compulsory day choice, if the system is unable to secure boarding space for him or her, it will then seek to place him or her on the day basis in that school.

Tie-Breaking

Where a school is oversubscribed for a particular programme by students with similar aggregates, a tie-breaking system is employed to determine the placement.

i. The number of Grade Ones

E.g. If 300 students with Aggregate Six are competing for Science in School A and there are only 120 science spaces available, the ranking will be done such that those with Nine Ones will gain admission, followed by those with Eight Ones, and so on.

ii. Raw Score

If there is still a further need to break a tie, this will be done in descending order with respect to the raw scores obtained.

iii. Subject performance

A further tie-breaking, where necessary, will then follow with respect to the core subjects; English, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies.

Depending on the level of performance and therefore competition, it is possible for a candidate with Aggregate six to miss out on a highly competitive programme in a highly competitive school and on a highly competitive residential status like boarding, in which case he or she will be moved to their 2nd choice for possible placement.

For instance, if you choose the highly competitive science programme in OWASS and you miss out, you cannot come and ask for your programme to be changed to another programme at OWASS.

Sensitization of school heads and other education has been ongoing. Schools are to guide parents in turn.