Do You Know Why 2025 BECE Candidates Who Chose Day School May Have a Better Chance at Their First-Choice SHS During the 2025 School Placement?

Candidates of the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) are currently awaiting their results and the subsequent Senior High School (SHS) placement.

Once the results are released in September 2025, candidates will check the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) improved Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) portal for their placement into various Senior High and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.

Since the introduction of the Free SHS policy, prospective students who select the ‘day school’ option have often had a higher chance of being placed in their chosen school compared to those who opt for boarding. This means that choosing a day school can increase a student’s placement probability.

This situation is largely due to inadequate boarding facilities in many second-cycle institutions, which limits the number of boarding students they can accept. This was confirmed by the Central Regional Coordinator for the Free SHS program back in 2023.

This explains why a student with a good aggregate who chooses the boarding option at a competitive school like PRESEC-LEGON might not get placed, while another student with a slightly weaker aggregate could be admitted as a day student to the same school. When parents and candidates opt for the day student status during school selection, it helps mitigate accommodation challenges and increases the student’s chances of being placed.

As an official explained:

“Although you may have a very good grade, because the boarding option is very competitive, you might not get the school. You may get the same grade as somebody, but that person may have selected to be a day student to read general science. If they are admitting 200 science students, the day students would have a better chance because the boarding facilities might be full. The computer looks at all these things before we place them.”

All 2025 BECE candidates who choose a day school as their first choice and perform well stand a high chance of being placed in that school. If they miss their first choice but their second choice is also a day school, their chances of being placed increase further compared to those who exclusively choose boarding schools.

Conversely, for students who select only boarding schools for all their choices, the risk of not being placed in any of their five selections is very high. Many of these students miss out on all their choices and ultimately have to use the self-placement module.

Official GES Notice

The management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) remains committed to ensuring a smooth, merit-based SHS placement process. The public is strongly cautioned NOT to fall prey to deceitful persons who may ask for money in exchange for a place in an SHS. Such persons should be reported to the police immediately.

For authentic information, the public is advised to follow the official GES social media channels and avoid fake news portals.