Computerized School Selection and Placement System in Ghana: Challenges and The Way Forward

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to review literature on the challenges and the way forward of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) in Ghana. Literature informs us that the key challenge to the Computerized School Selection and Placement System was the human factor in terms of refusal of parents and students to accept placement into other schools apart from their chosen high endowed schools. It is also found from the literature of this paper that, there was the challenge of some parents not being able to pay the school fees for their wards who have been placed in private schools due to the high cost of private schools' fees. Methodologically, this paper relied primarily on secondary sources of information such as online literatures on computerized school selection, archives, some excerpts from the daily graphic among others. Parents, Headteachers of Junior High Schools and Senior High Schools, students, policy makers and stakeholders in education were the focus in this study. Finally, the review established that the CSSPS has become fertile grounds for bribery and corruption in our dear country Ghana. From the review, it is therefore recommended that there is the need to revisit the policy of developing some of the senior high schools in each region as model schools, with all the modern facilities required in a standard second cycle school. Also, we recommend that Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ghana Education Service (GES) should provide inputs in time to the least endowed schools and also upgrade the infrastructural facilities in the least endowed schools to make them attractive to students so as to reduce pressure on the highly board for us to see how best we could evaluate and modify the system for the betterment of the children and our nation.