2023 School placement: What schools don’t tell parents & students

Do well to read “2023 School placement: What schools don’t tell parents & students” and help yourself.

The 2022/2023 School placement is expected to be released this month for BECE candidates who graduate Junior High School in October 2022. Ahead of the release, we share facts about the school placement in this write-up, “2023 School placement: What schools don’t tell parents & students” to keep you updated and informed.

With these issues about the School placement, which have been well explained here, it is hoped that parents and students will get their minds conditioned for the challenging days ahead.

If you miss your favourite school after the release of the 2023 School placements, do not forget what you read in this article.

We share with you the School placement for BECE candidates in a simplified form to help parents, students and other stakeholders understand the school placement system.

School placement for BECE candidates

The placement actually starts with the selection of schools, way before the results are released.

It is important to understand how the placement in schools works.
Please pay attention if you have a child, ward or relative who is about to select his or her schools.

Placement
Following the release of BECE results by WAEC, 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, his or her raw score is calculated.

The raw score becomes one of the data in a pool of raw scores for students who chose the schools he or she chose, as well as the programmes. This makes it a competitive process as the students with the highest raw scores for a particular school programme and accommodation are placed. The placement into a school from that database is done until the number of slots for a given accommodation and programme is exhausted.

The vacancies declared earlier by each school are fed into the CSSPS.
There are three modes by which placement is done under the CSSPS:
■Automatic Placement
■Self-Placement
■Manual Placement

READ: Free SHS is killing the economy – Kofi Bentil of IMANI

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 an aggregate of 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.

READ: Why GES, MoE can’t dance to SHS “Dis” Placement mess

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 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 based on the following.

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, then
•Mathematics, then
•Integrated Science, then
•Social Studies.

Depending on the level of performance and the 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 at OWASS and you miss out, you cannot come and ask for your programme to be changed to another programme at OWASS.

READ: 2023 School placement release date projected as Heads of SHS/TVI Portal goes live

■Self-Placement

Where after the automatic self-placement, a BECE candidate who passed the BECE did not get placed due to a for instance a miss match between his programme and preferred accommodation, he or she will be given the chance to do the self-placement. Let us explain this with an illustration.

Kuma David obtained aggregate 15, he chose General Science and Boarding thorough out, but he was not placed in any of the schools he chose because each time he was moved to one of the school choices during the automatic placement, there were vacancies for students who want to study General Science as Day students, but his accommodation type was boarding. Such a student will be given the option to do the self-placement, where even his choice of Cluster option did not get him placed automatically.

■Manual Placement

The manual school placement is done where for instance a male student has been placed in an all-female school, or a student has been placed in a special school which does not have the needed facilities. This is where protocol placements also fall. The MoE may also offer this service at regional centres and through special call centres and numbers for some students who have genuine issues.

READ: 2023 School Placement and 2 SHS1 Academic Calendars To be Used

With these issues about the School placement well explained here, it is hoped that parents and students will get their minds conditioned for the challenging days ahead. If you miss your favourite school after the release of the 2023 School placements, do not forget what you read in this article.