Accra, Tuesday, September 23, 2025 – The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has fired a scorching critique at the country’s current Senior High School (SHS) placement regime, describing scenes at the GNAT Hall in Accra as a national disgrace and a reflection of deep-rooted systemic failure in Ghana’s educational planning.
For days, the GNAT Hall became a theatre of confusion, as parents and BECE graduates queued in their hundreds — some sleeping overnight — just to secure placement into senior high schools. The chaotic scenes followed the release of this year’s Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) results, which left over 107,509 qualified students without school placements.
GNACOPS, the umbrella body representing private education interests, minced no words in its scathing assessment. In a strongly worded statement issued by its National Executive Director, Obenfo Nana Kwasi Gyetuah, the council blasted the current placement process as “inefficient, unjust, and disconnected from the realities of ordinary Ghanaians.”
“What we are witnessing is not just a policy failure — it is a humanitarian crisis for our children,” the statement read. “Each year, the GNAT Hall becomes a pressure cooker of desperation, and yet authorities continue to pretend it’s business as usual.”
The Council pointed out that despite the noble intentions behind the Free SHS policy, its rollout through the CSSPS has been marred by technical glitches, poor communication, and what it called “opaque placement criteria” that continue to sow confusion and distrust among parents and students alike.
GNACOPS is now demanding an urgent decentralization of the entire placement resolution process, calling for District Education Offices to be equipped and mandated to resolve placement issues at the local level — rather than forcing families to travel to Accra at great personal cost.
“This Accra-centric resolution model is archaic and elitist. Why should a student from Bawku or Sefwi Wiawso have to journey all the way to Accra to fix a placement error? It’s a mockery of inclusion and accessibility,” Gyetuah fumed.
The Council also raised red flags about growing rural-urban disparities in school placements, insisting that the system appears skewed in favour of candidates from well-resourced urban schools, while brilliant but underprivileged students from remote areas are pushed to the margins.
In addition to decentralization, GNACOPS is calling for major digital infrastructure reforms and policy reviews that ensure fairness, gender balance, and transparency in how students are matched to schools. The Council believes that the existing system is not just broken — it is structurally flawed and in urgent need of a total overhaul.
GNACOPS has thrown down the gauntlet to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, urging them to initiate national consultations with key stakeholders, including parents, private schools, civil society, and ICT experts, to redesign the placement system into one that serves the best interest of all Ghanaian children — not just a privileged few.
Read the full statement below!
GHANA NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS (GNACOPS)
Motto: Redefining the Role of Private Education
GPS Address: GE-294-2525
P.O. Box AH 346, Achimota – Accra
Website: www.gnacops.org
Email: info@gnacops.org
Contact: +233 (0) 24 449 8279 / 024 964 1349 / 024 436 5074
THE STRUGGLE FOR SHS PLACEMENT: GNAT HALL BECOMES EPICENTER OF ANXIETY
The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has closely observed the development and implementation of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, particularly through the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). While the policy itself represents a commendable effort to broaden access to secondary education for BECE graduates, its implementation reveals significant challenges that demand immediate and innovative responses.
The recent scenes at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall in Accra paint a vivid picture of the widespread anxiety and frustration experienced by students and parents. Year after year, long queues form as families await placement results — many left disheartened by non-placements or allocations that are misaligned with students’ academic choices, gender considerations, or geographical realities.
In the most recent placement cycle, a staggering 107,509 qualified candidates — representing 18.2% of eligible BECE graduates — were not automatically placed in any school. These figures, coupled with growing concerns over the transparency of the CSSPS process, have fueled a climate of confusion and distress for families navigating this critical educational transition.
Our assessment points to deep-seated systemic and infrastructural issues at the core of these challenges. Disparities between urban and rural student outcomes remain pronounced, and technical glitches—compounded by weak communication systems—have further eroded public confidence in the placement process. Centralized resolution centers like the GNAT Hall, while perhaps intended to streamline support, have instead become chokepoints that delay and distance effective solutions from those in need.
GNACOPS has consistently opposed the continued use of centralized national resolution centers. We strongly advocate for a decentralized model that empowers District Education Offices to become the primary hubs for placement issue resolution. This approach would bring services closer to communities, ease financial and logistical burdens on families, and ensure faster, fairer resolutions for affected students.
In addition to decentralization, we emphasize the urgent need to:
Address infrastructural inequities,
Enhance the reliability of digital placement tools,
Implement policies that promote equity, inclusivity, and transparency.
By pursuing these reforms, Ghana can build a placement system that not only functions efficiently but also ensures that every student is treated with dignity, fairness, and consideration for their personal and academic circumstances.
Conclusion
Ghana’s SHS placement system stands at a pivotal crossroads. GNACOPS calls for a practical and inclusive reform agenda that prioritizes local empowerment through District Education Offices and addresses the broader systemic shortcomings affecting placement equity and effectiveness.
For the sake of anxious parents, determined students, and the shared vision of educational excellence in Ghana, we urge all stakeholders to adopt localized solutions and innovative reforms as guiding principles for the future of SHS placement.
Issued by:
Executive Secretariat
Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS)
Signed:
Obenfo Nana Kwasi Gyetuah
National Executive Director
GNACOPS
