The Ministry of Education is tightening controls over student enrolment in second-cycle institutions to prevent schools from exceeding approved capacity and admitting students outside the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
The move follows concerns over discrepancies between the number of students officially placed through the CSSPS and the number eventually found enrolled in some Senior High Schools (SHSs), Senior High Technical Schools (SHTSs) and Technical and Vocational Institutes (TVIs).
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has consequently directed heads of second-cycle institutions to strictly comply with approved vacancies and enrolment figures, warning that school heads who breach the directive will face sanctions.
The directive, issued through the Directors-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and Ghana TVET Service, prohibits heads from manually admitting students or increasing the number of students allocated to their institutions through the CSSPS.
The Ministry said the practice of under-declaring vacancies and subsequently admitting students outside the placement system compromises the accuracy of national enrolment data and undermines education planning.
It also creates difficulties in projecting budgets and determining the resources required by individual schools, potentially affecting the timely and accurate disbursement of government funds.
“Any head of school found to have admitted students outside the CSSPS, upon confirmation through enrolment data validation, shall be sanctioned in accordance with the applicable regulations and the Code of Ethics,” the directive stated.
The Ministry said the 2026 placement cycle has been redesigned to link placement directly with enrolment, creating an integrated process that allows authorities to track students from allocation to actual admission.
Under the new arrangement, vacancies declared by schools will be validated and confirmed before placement, after which institutions will not be allowed to expand their approved capacity.
The Ministry stressed that the number of students placed through the CSSPS would constitute the approved enrolment figure for each school.
“Once vacancies are declared, validated, and confirmed on the system, there shall be no further expansion of vacancies,” the directive said.
The measure forms part of efforts under the World Bank-funded Secondary Education Transformation for Access, Relevance and Results for Jobs Project (STARR-J), which seeks to expand and improve infrastructure and learning conditions within the second-cycle education sector.
The government believes that accurate enrolment figures are necessary to ensure that infrastructure, teaching resources and funding are aligned with the actual number of students in schools.
The directive comes amid mixed reactions to the 2026 SHS placement exercise, following the release of placement results for qualified BECE candidates.
While some students secured admission to their preferred schools, others expressed disappointment after being placed in schools other than their first choices, despite recording what they considered good grades.
Some candidates undertaking self-placement also reported difficulties, while concerns were raised over students being assigned to day schools located far from their homes, potentially increasing transportation and accommodation challenges.
The 2026 placement exercise also introduced a new approach under which BECE candidates were allowed to access their examination results before selecting their preferred second-cycle institutions.
The Ministry said the arrangement was intended to enable candidates to make more informed choices based on their examination performance.
The 2026 BECE was conducted from May 4 to May 11, with 620,141 candidates, comprising 304,349 boys and 315,792 girls, sitting the examination from 20,395 schools.
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu is expected to address the concerns surrounding the placement exercise at a press conference and provide further clarification on the measures being implemented to improve the system.
The Ministry’s latest directive signals a stronger push to make CSSPS placement and actual school enrolment consistent, with authorities seeking to eliminate unofficial admissions and ensure that public resources are planned and allocated based on reliable student numbers.
