6 Reasons many 2023 BECE Students who passed would miss School Placement

6 Reasons Many 2023 BECE Students who passed would miss school placement, which will be revealed in this article. There are many reasons that can help explain why students pass BECE but miss school placement when they are released.

The 2023 school placement, when released by GES, will also have some of these factors preventing students from being placed.

As parents, guardians, and students patiently wait for the Ghana Education Service to release the 2023 school placements, it is important that the possibilities of not being placed in any of the five choices are explained.

It is not uncommon to hear parents say their ward did well; he or she got an aggregate of 10, but when the school placement was released, the ward was not placed in the first or second choice, or no placement at all. This 2023 school placement will not be different.

In this detailed, eye-opening article, we will combine experience, research, and information from the Ghana Education Service to break through the mystery behind the school placement chances of candidates.

The factors that can decrease or increase your chances of being placed during the 2023 school placement are many. However, in this content, we explain them under six subheadings.

Below are the 6 reasons why students pass BECE but miss school placement.

#1: The use of raw scores and not student aggregated grades for placement

There is always confusion about a student’s aggregated grade and raw score obtained after the BECE. A student’s aggregated grade is the sum of grades obtained in the four core subjects (English, Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies) plus two best grades from the remaining 4 or 5 subjects.

The raw score is the sum of the actual marks obtained for the four core subjects and the two best grades from the remaining courses.

For example, if a student obtained the following grades and raw scores:

Subject                                                                                 Raw Score/100

English Language      72  – 2

Mathematics: 81   – 1

Integrated Science      64 –   4

Social Studies   79   -1

Information Communication Technology  82 –  1

Ghanaian Language: 62 – 4

Religious and Moral Education    76   – 1

Basic Design and Technology   78  -1

French      71   –   2

The aggregate of EMSS + TWO OTHER BEST (2+1+4+1+1+1) = 10

Total Raw Score is = (72+81+64+79+82+78) = 456

In placing a student in a school, it will be based on the raw score obtained by the student, the competition for a slot in the programme, and the school choice.

It is possible to have a good grade and a low raw score, and vice versa. Grades are awarded over a range of scores and may be the same but vary greatly when raw scores are used. Hence, two students who obtain the same aggregate score will not have the same raw scores because the scores they obtain for each subject vary.

If a student opted for Integrated Science and obtained the raw score of 456, it is possible that there would be other students who opted for the same programmeme and scored above 456 and chose the same school and programmeme.

A school that has 100 spots for admission into the General Science programme would consider students based on their raw scores until the science slots are all filled up.

Candidates with higher raw scores will be considered first, even if their grades are lower, until they are all placed for the particular programme and school. If the number of students a school can admit is taken care of but there are others, they have moved automatically to the second-choice school for consideration.

It is, therefore, possible to have a good raw score but miss your first school of choice because of the programme you opted for and the competition for the limited space for admission. Students and parents are therefore to note that, in case they missed the student’s first choice, the above could explain the outcome.

#2 Students Pass BECE But Miss School Placement Because of Grades 9, 8, and 7

The three worst grades students may obtain after any BECE are 7, 8, and 9, with the latter being the lowest and weakest.

Students who obtain grade 9 in mathematics or integrated science are often not placed during the school placement.

Such students are better off if they re-sit the failed subjects in the private BECE, pass, and reapply for consideration in the free SHS.

This means you can do well in all subjects, but if you fail in mathematics or integrated science, your chances of being admitted decrease.

#3 Accommodation Type (Day and Boarding)

Most students, due to the Free SHS, opt for boarding as their preferred accommodation when selecting schools. However, the government has made it compulsory for all BECE candidates to select one school from category D. These are all schools that have students who come from home every day to school. These schools may also have boarding facilities.

It is possible to have a good grade but miss admission because the student opted for boarding. Another student can obtain lower grades or the same grade, choose the same school as a day student, and be granted accommodation or admission as a day student.

Hence, a good raw score or grade is not enough to merit a particular school; accommodation type is also considered. For example, if a student opts for Achimota SHS-General Arts and Day with the same grade and gets admitted, another opts for the same programme but boarding and does not gain admission.

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#4. School choices and arrangements

Students have their own academic strengths that naturally match a category of schools. Schools are often grouped into various categories based on the available facilities and not their performance.

It is highly possible to have a school in category C that performs well at the WASSCE. Hence, there are very good schools in nearly all the categories. But this is not known to many candidates and parents.

If the schools chosen for a student during the BECE registration are based on the taste and preference of the parents or the prestige that comes with attending the school and not the candidate’s academic strength, it creates the first problem.

A student whose best grade in any subject is 5 will likely have a lower raw score than another who makes a worse grade per subject of 3.

For some students, the best category to choose schools from is the 3^rd category or category “C” or “B”.

If such a student chooses his or her first choice from category “A,” for instance, the chances of gaining admission and being placed through the school placement system decrease.

In every category, the student will be competing with other good students, and should the raw scores of others be better than yours, they will be offered admission ahead of you.

What many students do not know is that the category D choices (competition) are competitive as well.

This is because there are equally good students who choose the same schools as their first, second, or third choices, and as Day students, for that matter.

They would be considered in the natural order of things before the candidate who opted for the same school as a compulsory day school choice.

#5: Programme and number of programmes

Making good grades and choosing a programme that does not match them can be very stressful.

For instance, if a student obtains an aggregate of 12 and a raw score of 420 but opts for business, the possibility of being placed is higher than if he or she opts for science in a school where BECE graduates seeking to study science are obtaining raw scores of 450 and above. You can read School Placement Raw Score for 2023 BECE and How to Calculate to know more about this.

In such a situation, gaining admission to the school will be slim.

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#6: Students pass BECE but miss school placement due to being public and private school candidates.

Finally, there is a quotation given that determines the number of BECE graduates from public basic schools that get admitted into Free SHS.

Such students are considered to be ahead of their private school counterparts.

They may also gain admission into a school with a worse grade compared to other students from private schools.

Hence, making good grades at a private basic school may not guarantee that a student will be placed without considering the public school candidate.

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To conclude, the 2022 school placement will not be different as it will be based on the logic coded into the CSSPS to ensure equity, merit-based school placement of students, and fairness. The above factors are considered part of the logic that the system understands.

A combination of one or more of these explains the reasons why students pass BECE but miss school placement opportunities.

Read: GES Suspends All Non-Critical Activities Across the Country

This notwithstanding, it is even possible for a student with low grades to be admitted into a programme or school that requires higher grades if the protocol options are used to enrol the student. Now you know some of the reasons why your ward may perform well but miss the 2022 school placement opportunity.

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Source: Wisdom Hammond | Ghanaeducation.org