Despite demands to rethink the reopening date, first-year senior high school students across the country are scheduled to return to their respective schools today.
Parents and other stakeholders have requested an extension of the reporting deadline for a variety of reasons, but the Ghana Education Service (GES) has insisted on the December 4 deadline.
Parliament also requested that the Minister of Education reconsider moving the reopening date to the first week of January, rather than Monday, December 4.
In a statement, the Parliamentary Service stated that
“due to the short notice with its attendant inconvenience to students, parents, teaching, and non-teaching staff, the House proposes for the consideration of the Hon. Minister of Education the first week of January 2024 as a more convenient and appropriate time for parents, students, and teachers to adequately prepare for academic work.”
The GES, however, rejected Parliament’s request. In a statement, GES stated that “it is the expectation of management that schools begin registration and orientation of students from the 4th of December 2023.”
The Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) placed 585,797 out of a total of 598,839 applicants in various Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Education and Training Schools (TVET) across the country.
In an interview with Citi News, the Deputy Spokesperson of the Educational Ministry, Yaw Opoku Mensah, asked parents suffering placement issues to visit specific specialized locations around the nation to have things rectified.
“It has been a system by the Ghana Education Service and that of the Ministry of Education that any time you release placement outcome, definitely students will come with a lot of issues, change of status. So once you have such a challenge, then you can walk to the national office at Adabraka and all the 16 administrative regions; we also have it over there. We also have a command centre that works 24/7,” he said.
