Free SHS Placement Increased for Private Schools by 15% for Category A Schools

Effective with the 2025-2026 admissions, enrolment and placement slots in Category A schools for private school candidates are expected to increase. This follows the decision by the government to change the current SHS placement system.

Previously, 30% of places in Category A schools were reserved for students from public basic schools. The remaining 70% were open to competition among all 100% private school candidates and 70% of public school candidates.

Going forward, the Ministry of Education has reduced the reserved quota for public school students to 15%. This means 85% of the placements in Category A schools will now be competed for by all BECE candidates based on merit.

This policy applies to candidates sitting for the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for admission into the 2025/2026 academic year. As a result, more candidates from private schools are likely to be placed in Category A schools than in previous years.

This also means that public school candidates writing the 2025 BECE must perform exceptionally well to compete with their counterparts from private schools for the open slots.

Benita Sena Okity-Duah, The National Coordinator of the Free Senior High School, who declared this at a press briefing last Tuesday in Accra to give a rough idea of the new procedures for the selections of schools liable to the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), clarified that the choice was the stand of government. Up to this point, the Ghana Education Service (GES) apportioned 30 per cent placement of Grade ‘A’ schools to government school students, dropping the remaining 70 per cent for the rest of the public school and private school students.

The policy decision is applicable to the 2025 BECE candidates entering senior high schools for the 2025/26 academic year.
The National Coordinator of the Free Senior High School, Benita Sena Okity-Duah, who announced this at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday to outline new guidelines for the selection of schools under the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), explained that the decision was the position of the government. Until now, the Ghana Education Service (GES) allocated 30 per cent placement of Grade ‘A’ schools to public school candidates, leaving the rest of the 70 per cent for remaining public school and private school candidates.

It was an apple of discord between private school managers and the Ghana Education Service, where the former gave a description of the scheme as impermissible after it developed biases in the educational system.

In addition, it said the scheme breached Article 25 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, which stated that, “everyone shall have the right to equal educational chances and facilities and with a focus on reaching the full awareness of that right.” Mrs Okity-Duah, who declared that the selection of schools started on Tuesday, May 27, to June 11 by the BECE candidates, said the operation would not be lengthened and all candidates were expected to go act in accordance with the instructions.

Nevertheless, candidate can choose all five schools from category C. Candidates who have interest in TVET education are needed to choose all their five choices in TVET school but in same sequence of one from category A, not more than two from category B or all five schools from category C.

She gave counsel to parents to show interest in the filling of the forms, and they were supposed to sign it at the end and have a copy for themselves. Under the recent directions, candidates are looking forward to choosing five schools of their choice and two others, adding up to make seven in all. Relatively to the choosing, candidates are expected to choose one school from category A, or equal to two schools from category B.

READ: Download 2025 School Selection Form Plus A Guide for BECE Candidates, Parents, and Educators

Mrs Okity-Duah stated that, habitually the placement of the candidates in the schools would be deserved-based and after the candidate was placed in a school, there would not be any amendments in placement.

With the Free SHS Enrolment and Placement Slots for Private School Candidates Increased By 15% for Category A Schools, it is expected that more parents whose wards are writing the 2025 BECE as private school registered candidates will be happy when the placements are released in about three months time.