GES gives reason for computer school placement release delay

The Ghana Education Service after the Ministry of Education said the placements of students who sat for 2022 BECE would be out in early February says the computer school placement release has been delayed amid disruption in the academic calendar.

In an interview, a spokeswoman for the Service, Cassandra Twum Ampofo also blamed the first-year Senior High School reporting date on the Covid-19 pandemic’s outbreak that negatively impacted the academic school calendar.

“We needed to go back to our previous calendar which used to begin in September, and so we had some back and forth on that, and we agreed to go back, and we needed to reduce the contact period so that we will be able to move back to the September to July calendar before COVID-19 set in,” he said.

The spokesperson however assured the management of her outfit is working tirelessly with the Ministry of Education and other relevant stakeholders to release the computerised school placement before February 20, 2023.

“We are preparing so hard to ensure the release of the placements and just this weekend, we had a training for our call centre agents so that they can attend to issues having to do with parents with challenges

We continue to caution parents and guardians not to pay money to anyone to have their children placed in any government second-cycle school,” the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ghana Education Service (GES) stated.

In a related development, Ranking Member on the Education Committee in Parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe has called on the Ghana Education Service to extend the February 20 reporting date for first-year Senior High School students.

Speaking on Citi FM’s EyeWitness News monitored by AcademicWeek, he said the February 20 date is only going to disrupt the already stressed academic calendar which is in transition to return to the usual September to July instead of the current January to December.

“It is going to affect the calendar because even February 20 is not feasible, and I am of the view that the first-year Senior High School students reopening date should be on March 1, 2023,” the Education Committee member said.

He said the prospectus of students varies with respective schools thus ample time should be given to enable parents to raise the necessary funds to buy the needed item for their wards who will be starting their second-level education.

READ: NAGRAT outlines what has delayed 2023 SHS placement release

“What you will purchase and need to take to the school depends on the school the student will be attending, and I will advise that time should be given to give parents some relief.” Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe said.