Category A schools in Ghana are considered to be the best schools in the country. They have a good reputation, excellent facilities, and highly qualified teachers. However, there are a few reasons why 2023 BECE candidates should not choose category A schools.
Reasons why 2023 BECE candidates must not choose Category A schools
- High Competition: Category A schools are very competitive. This means that students will have to work very hard to keep up with the demanding curriculum. If a student is not prepared for the competition, they may struggle academically and lose their confidence.
- Lack of Personal Attention: Category A schools are large schools with a lot of students. This can make it difficult for teachers to give students the individual attention they need. As a result, students may not get the support they need to succeed.
- It is not compulsory that BECE candidates should make their first choice from Category A schools. It is better to make your first choice from category B than A if you want to remain safer and relevant in the school placement competition when placement is being done.
- Note that Schools in Category A are often in the category because they have the needed facilities and not because they perform well in the WASSCE.
- There are better schools in category B compared to A in terms of their academic performance at the WASSCE. start school selection from Category B if your academic performance will not genuinely help you get placed in Category A schools.
If you do not have the guts to make 7 to 9 ones or above 400/600 raw score, please consider the advice given in this post. Do not choose schools based n taste and preference or else, you will be disappointed.
Candidates and parents must note that it is not compulsory to choose schools from category A especially if the candidate’s performance does not match the competition for such schools. For instance, if you cannot make 7 to 9 once in the BECE, do not be tempted to choose such schools as your first choice.
No candidate will be placed in a school chosen based on luck. Schools must be chosen with the candidate’s academic strength and results from his or her Mock results. This is very important. For a candidate whose total raw score from the last three mocks is less than 350/600, it will be a dangerous decision to choose a category A school.
For a candidate to be placed, he or she must have a good raw score no matter the category from which a school is chosen. Note that, you can be placed into any of the 1-6 schools you chose.
READ: Senior High Schools Selection Guidelines for 2023 BECE Candidates – GES
SHS like Kumasi Senior High/Tech, Ghana National College, Anglican Senior High, Kumasi, Pressec Legon, and Presby Senior High/Tech, Aburi admit less than 10% of students who choose them. What this means is that for every 100 students who choose these schools, only 10 or fewer gain admission.
In 2021 Kumasi Senior High/Tech was chosen by 69,260 but only 2,758 which represents 4%.
If you are a 2023 BECE candidate, you should carefully consider your options before choosing a category A school. There are many other good schools in Ghana that offer a quality education without the high cost and competition of category A schools and these are found in category B and some in C.

The Ghana Education News Editorial Team is a specialized collective of education researchers, journalists, and policy analysts dedicated to providing high-fidelity reporting on the Ghanaian academic landscape. Serving as a primary bridge between governing bodies—including the Ghana Education Service (GES) and WAEC—and the public, the team leverages over a decade of combined experience to serve students, parents, and educators nationwide.
Lead Architect & Editor-in-Chief
The team is led by Wisdom Kojo Eli Hammond, a distinguished Ghanaian Edu-Tech Entrepreneur, AI Solutions Developer, and Product Architect with over 25 years of cross-disciplinary experience in education, finance, and digital media. Wisdom is the visionary force behind SkulManager, Ghana’s premier school management ecosystem, and the Lead Consultant at Education-News Consult.
A self-taught innovator, professional Web Designer, and regular columnist on GhanaWeb, Wisdom engineered SkulManager.com as the only platform strictly tailored to the GES Curriculum. His technical leadership has redefined educational assessment through a Hybrid Marking Ecosystem, pioneering the BECE and WASSCE Home Mock services—a unique fusion of WAEC-trained human examiners and advanced AI marking engines operational since 2022.
Wisdom’s 360-degree view of institutional challenges is grounded in his tenure as College President and Lecturer at Pinnacle College (Achimota), as well as his background as a school administrator and accountant. He is a dedicated lifelong learner currently advancing his studies at the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), with academic ties to the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
An accomplished author, his works include Returnees of the Dead Forest (UK Published), Simplified Beacon of Light (850+ Q&A), and The Leader in Me. A foundational pillar of the award-winning NGO Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), Wisdom is committed to building intelligent systems that solve societal problems and prepare the next generation of Ghanaian students for a digital future.
Contact: 0550360658 | Portals: GhanaEducation.org, GhanaEducationNews.org, SkulManager.com, BECEPrep.com. Educationnewsconsult.com etc

Yet government will put government schools students who did not perform well in category A schools.
This is Ghana where they don’t practice what they preach.