The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on the government to take immediate action to secure actual classroom placements and training opportunities for more than 200,000 students stranded following the release of the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.
In a press statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party criticized the government’s handling of the computer placement process and secondary education outcomes.
According to the party, 54,985 BECE candidates were initially informed they had not qualified for secondary school, before the government directed 53,887 of them to access the online self-placement portal. The NPP argued that relying on a digital portal does not guarantee physical access to education.
“In the case of the BECE candidates who were not assigned any school placements by the CSSPS, the Government’s announcement of September 7th 2026 asking applicants to go back online for self-placement suggests that the Ministry of Education has not learnt lessons from previous challenges with the placement system,” the statement read. “By the time 53,887 candidates log in, the schools and programmes they wanted will largely be gone”.
The party emphasized that official data indicates 859,828 available vacancies against 623,072 BECE candidates, demonstrating that overall capacity exists despite congestion in Category A schools.
Addressing the WASSCE performance, the NPP highlighted that 183,233 candidates completed secondary school without securing a credit in Core Mathematics, severely limiting their higher education and employment prospects.
“A weak certificate closes doors at exactly the moment a young person is trying to start out, whether the next step is a university, a workshop or a job,” the NPP stated. “The over 200,000 stranded Ghanaian children cannot wait for the next sudden move by Government and the NPP calls for proactive quick action to protect their future”.
To resolve the impasse, the NPP outlined a five-point demand:
Ensure all 54,985 affected BECE candidates are physically placed in schools and publish the final list.
Clarify the pass marks and criteria applied for this year’s placement process.
Utilize the 85 private senior high schools integrated into the Free SHS framework to absorb candidates.
Adequately fund academic intervention and remedial programmes across public high schools.
Publish regional and sector breakdowns of available places across TVET, apprenticeship, and job training schemes.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
