Exclude students of Northern Ghana from the Computer School Selection and Placement System - Kazigo Chief Appeals

06-12-2011         

The Divisional Chief of Kazigo, a farming community in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region, Pe Parekuri Aluah, has made a passionate appeal to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to consider excluding students of Northern Ghana from the new Computer School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) owing to the frustration students go through to know where they are placed. Besides the frustration, the system has to some extent reduced the three year SHS duration to two year and a term, which to him is not the best for slow learners and rural schools that did not get good academic foundation at the basic level. He complained that the system is more corrupt than lobbying school heads for admission in the past. According to him, only top influential people lobby for their wards to be placed in the so called category ‘A’ and endowed schools, citing an instance where a girl from his area got aggregate 15 but was denied placement at her first choice school. He said upon a follow up, he realized that even girls with aggregate 21 and 24 were put in the category ‘A’ schools. Pe Aluah was sad to note that in terms of academic structure, students down south are always ahead of those in the north, thus, creating a yawning academic gap between the north and the south. Pe Aluah was of the view that improvement in the academic performance among students of the north could only be made to be at par with their folks down south only if they are offered equal academic opportunities and provided with the needed school infrastructure. He said issue of inadequate school infrastructure coupled with lack of qualified teaching personnel and accommodation for both students and staff still remain a major challenge to education in the north. Pe Aluah told Radio Ghana that much needs to be done by the government and other educational stakeholders in addressing these challenges. He was quick to add that government should as a matter of immediacy allocate the chunk of its budget on education to the north and also ensure that more trained teachers are sent to deprived areas to teach. He also stressed on the need for teacher motivation and opening of more girls schools to help narrow the wide educational imbalance between gab existing among boys and girls.

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