Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has asserted that at least 432,405 students who qualified for senior high school have been placed.
The number represents 91.2 percent of the total placement for first year students out of the 473,728 qualified candidates.
Addressing the media on Thursday, the minister said a total of 520,298 vacancies were declared by 721 public and private schools for the 2019/20 academic year.
There have been problems associated with the computerised school selection and placement system, causing thousands of desperate prospective SHS students from across the country and their parents to throng the Independence Square in Accra since Monday anticipating to have their issues resolved.
But a chaotic atmosphere caused a mini stampede leading to the collapse of some students and parents.
Though Dr. Opoku Prempeh downplayed the aspect of people collapsing, he admitted only few of the thousands who thronged the venue have genuine concerns.
He reiterated claims that the system was hacked as well as people being bused and convinced to cause confusion at the CSSPS complaint Centre at the Independence Square.
Giving a breakdown of the process so far, he said as of Wednesday, September 18, out of the total qualified candidates who got placement, 351,022 representing 74.10% were automatically placed by the system while the self placement constituted 81,383 which is 17.1%. This brings the total placement to date to 432,405 representing 91.2% of the 473,728 who qualified for placement.
However, out of the total 432,405 candidates that have been placed, only 168, 639 have actually been recorded as enrolled in the various schools on Wednesday as at 11pm, the minister said.
Meanwhile, the Education Minister has announced a number of government interventions to address the growing number of students entering SHS.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh for instance said 8 E Blocks were available for placement but the students did not chose them due to lack of dormitories, which government is taking care of.
Source: 3news.com | Ghana