Since the introduction of the Free SHS policy, there has been an intentional effort by the government to use what can be termed ‘unfair’ BECE school placement against all private schools and their candidates.
The ‘unfair’ BECE school placement is not only making the efforts of private school BECE candidates and private schools unrewarded, but it is also collapsing these schools. The ‘unfair’ BECE school placement is making dysfunctional and underperforming public junior high schools more attractive as a result.
The Ministry of Education has introduced a 30% equity quota in favour of BECE candidates who sit the BECE as public school students. In layman terms, this policy means a good student in a private school will not be placed in a Category A school, even if he or she performs better than his or her colleagues in public schools.
In other words, if a secondary school has 100 slots for admission, 30 out of the 100 will be reserved for public school students, while the remaining 70 will be based on competition between the remaining public and private JHS students who applied for consideration.
In the 2023–2024 school placement, this same ‘unfair’ school placement will be applied against private school candidates.
The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has stated that more pre-tertiary private schools in the country are collapsing because of this policy introduced by the government.
“Private Junior High Schools are collapsing as 5,564 students have moved to public schools as a result of 30% placement discrimination against Ghanaian children in private schools, which is injurious to Article 28, Clause 4.”
Due to the above, parents are taking their learners out of private JHSs and enrolling them in public JHSs.
In a related development, WAEC has commenced the marking of the 2023 BECE scripts. Results are expected to be released by WAEC before the end of the year. The release of the results will be followed by the release of the school placements.
READ: 2023 BECE Results: What Grade Do You Need for Each School Placement Category?
All candidates chose eleven schools during the 2023 school selection. However, where a candidate is not placed in any of these schools but makes the needed pass grade and raw score, he or she will be allowed to use the self-placement module.
How to check 2023 BECE results
- Go to the portal https://eresults.waecgh.org/
- Enter your index number (It is a 10-digit number)
- Enter your index number again to confirm it.
- Select the exam type. Eg. BECE School for those who sat the exam as school candidates and BECE Private for PC.
- Select the year you sat for the exam. Eg. 2023
- Enter the Result Checker Serial number
- Enter the PIN on the result checker
- Cross-check to ensure you have entered the correct details
- Check the ReCapcha
- Submit and wait for the result to load.