2024 Free SHS Placement: Do you know that in 2020, GES and the Ministry of Education identified 15 top schools that gave only 16,000 BECE graduates admission out of 290,000 who chose them?
Do you know the Dos and Donts of the school selection?
The actual data shows that a total of 291,581 students chose the listed 15 schools, but only 16,806. This means that out of every 100 students, only 5.7 were placed; thus, approximately 6 students were placed.
Do you know that in 2023, even though each candidate chose 11 schools for placement, over 100,000 did not get placed in any of these schools?
Do you know that you can be placed in any of the schools you choose, even category C schools?
Making school selection choices without thinking through them carefully can lead to such challenges.
The above issues have repeated themselves since 2020, and if parents and their candidates are not careful in selecting schools, students with good grades will end up using the manual or self-placement school options.
Let us take, for instance, students who chose Kumasi Senior High/Tech and Ghana National College as examples. These schools had over 30,000 candidates each choosing them, but in the end, Kumasi Senior High/Tech had only 1058 students placed out of the 31,267 that chose the school. In the same way, 956 students were placed at Ghana National College out of the 32,193 who chose the school.
The above data can be avoided if schools are selected after the release of results and if each school is allocated the cutoff point for placement. This will make life easy for parents and their learners; however, the big question is: will the government and the GES ever listen?
The table below is enough evidence that a lot of wrong choices are made during school selection. Everyone wants to attend the best and most popular schools. Everyone prefers the Category A schools.
Sadly, many parents and candidates choose schools based on their test scores instead of their academic strengths.
2024 Free SHS Placement
| No | REGION | SCHOOL NAME | TOTAL SELECTION | VACANCY | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashanti | Kumasi Senior High/Tech | 31,267 | 1,058 | 3.4% |
| 2 | Central | Ghana National College | 32,193 | 956 | 3% |
| 3 | Ashanti | Anglican Senior High, Kumasi | 27,262 | 1,906 | 7% |
| 4 | Ashanti | KNUST Senior High | 40,393 | 1,225 | 3% |
| 5 | Central | Aggrey Mem. A.M.E. Zion Snr. High | 23,018 | 752 | 3.3% |
| 6 | Ashanti | Armed Forces Senior High/Tech | 24,344 | 827 | 3.4% |
| 7 | G. Accra | Forces Senior High/Tech | 20,093 | 682 | 3.4% |
| 8 | Northern | Tamale Senior High | 15,448 | 1,450 | 9.4% |
| 9 | G. Accra | Achimota Senior High | 16,617 | 700 | 4.2% |
| 10 | Bono | Sunyani Senior High | 15,867 | 1,800 | 11.3% |
| 11 | Ashanti | T. I. Ahmadiyya Senior High, Kumasi | 14,775 | 1,200 | 8.1% |
| 12 | Central | Wesley Girls Senior High, Cape Coast | 4,743 | 800 | 16.9% |
| 13 | G. Accra | Presby Boys Senior High, Legon | 6,854 | 1,600 | 23.3% |
| 14 | Eastern | Aburi Girls Senior High | 5,837 | 950 | 16.3% |
| 15 | Volta | Mawuli School, Ho | 12,860 | 900 | 7% |
2024 Free SHS Placement – Dos and Donts
DOs AND DON’Ts OF SCHOOL PLACEMENT
- Dos of the typical school selection process.
- Ensure you pay close attention to ALL of your school choices
- Ensure that the schools are in order of preference from your first priority to the least priority.
- Ensure that your compulsory Day option is within your catchment area where you can conveniently commute.
- As a parent/guardian, you must take an active interest in your child/ward’s school’s selection
- Ensure that you consult your child/ward’s teacher to obtain a realistic prospect of the child’s chances of gaining admission to a particular school.
DON’Ts of a typical school selection process
- Do not outsource school selection to someone without your express involvement.
- Do not leave school selection to an internet cafe attendant in the case of self-placement.
- Do not assume that you can choose a school as a Day Student and switch to Boarding upon admission.
- Do not assume that you can choose a ‘less competitive’ Programme at a school and switch to a ‘more competitive’ one upon admission.
- Do not choose schools based on where your friends are going or what programme they want to read.
READ: School Selection for 2024 BECE Graduates Starts August 23
We hope this information has been useful even as we wait for the release of the latest uodate by the GES on the 2024 school selection.
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