Headache time is here again for parents seeking admission for their children to various senior high schools (SHS) across the country.
It was anticipated that the introduction of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) would end this phase of antagonism between parents and headmasters and headmistresses at the beginning of every academic year.
Hitherto, headmasters used to gather at regional centres to select candidates for admission to SHS.
This centralised system at the regional level was introduced as a way of ensuring openness in the system and yet there were loopholes that some school heads exploited to the dissatisfaction of parents.
To many parents, the heads become unapproachable during the period of admission, hence their sigh of relief when the selection process was computerised.
The CSSPS has, however, not reduced completely the pain that parents and even headmasters have to go through during this time of the year.
Sometimes all the parties forget that human beings provide the input for the computerisation exercise and, since, as it is said, “garbage in, garbage out” is one of the characteristics of the computerisation process, whatever is fed into the computer is reproduced for the schools.
Admittedly, the CSSPS was introduced for good reasons and meant to remove any manipulation by education administrators.
We think that as any human endeavour we have a long way to go to reach a stage where, at least, majority of parents will be satisfied with the selection process.
Ideally parents will have expected that their children who performed creditably will receive admission letters just as was the case in the past without having to go through the hassle of accessing the Internet for their slips and waiting anxiously for the CSSPS.
Even after the CSSPS, many students will not know their fate after schools have reopened and if they are lucky they are either admitted to their first choice schools or other places where vacancies are declared by such schools.
The major challenge, however, may not be with the CSSPS but what to do with the about 51 per cent of the candidates who wrote the 2010 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
According to the Ghana Education Service (GES), about 49 per cent of the total of 350,888 candidates who wrote the 2010 BECE qualified for placement into SHS and technical institutes (TIs).
According to the criteria used by the CSSPS, 178,529 failed to qualify for placement into SHS and TIs.
As a nation, we have to be worried that more than 50 per cent of our children are not going to attain secondary education because it is an open secret that anyone whose level of education is junior high school (that is, BECE) would find it difficult coping with today’s ever-changing information world.
We are wondering whether to such young people the 2010 BECE marked the end of their academic pursuits or there are any avenues open to them to pursue skills training to improve themselves and contribute to nation building?
The Daily Graphic is of the view that something must be done to open up the opportunities in our educational system to ensure that there is a reduction in the drop-out rate.
We concede that the government is already spending a chunk of its budget on education but if we all accept that education or investment in people holds the key to prosperity of any nation, then no price is too heavy to pay to ensure that majority of our youth get opportunities to improve themselves by attaining at least secondary education, which is ideal for them to decide the career they would like to pursue.
This year may be lost but the Daily Graphic calls on the government to put in place the necessary structures to avoid a repetition of the calamity that has befallen this group of basic school leavers.
We are encouraged, however, by the decision of the government to channel a major portion of GETFund into the development of infrastructure in basic and senior high schools.
This move, we pray, should help to open more opportunities for investment in our people, particularly the youth, on whom the country’s future survival depends.
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