Minister for Education, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed that government is realigning investment and spending toward basic education as part of efforts to address the country’s recurring school placement challenges, while defending the merit-based structure of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) against criticism from the previous administration.
Responding to remarks made by former Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, who had highlighted that around 3 million Ghanaian children were studying under trees across 10,900 schools in 13 regions as of 2025.
Hon. Iddrisu argued that such a record could not be attributed to a government that had been in office for only about a year and a half, questioning why an administration with eight years in power had failed to sufficiently invest in basic foundational learning.
According to the Minister, government has made significant financial provision for school feeding through GETFund and its uncapping, alongside continued investment of between GH¢1.4 billion and GH¢3 billion annually dedicated to the Free Senior High School programme since 2025.
He said the current administration is now working to realign spending priorities to give greater attention to basic education, describing it as a critical area requiring urgent investment alongside efforts to resolve the ongoing placement crisis.
Addressing concerns over the placement process, Iddrisu firmly defended the CSSPS as a transparent, merit-based mechanism, arguing that Ghana’s core challenge lies not in a shortage of secondary school vacancies, but in the concentrated demand for a limited number of Category A schools.
“CSSPS is a transparent mechanism to address the placement system, Ghana does not simply have a problem of insufficient vacancies for placement at the secondary education level, we have a problem with concentrated demand on Category A schools,”
Hon. Iddrisu
He further argued that students in Category B schools sometimes outperform their Category A counterparts by the end of their Free SHS education, suggesting that school category alone does not determine ultimate academic outcomes.
Explaining The Origins of School Categorisation
Pressed on why schools are categorised at all, the Minister explained that categories such as A, B and C largely reflect concentrated parental demand rather than an official government ranking exercise, citing the strong performance of schools like Prempeh College in national science and mathematics competitions as an example of why such institutions attract disproportionate demand from parents seeking quality education for their children.
He acknowledged that expanding access to Category A-level quality education could not be achieved within a single year, but committed, with the backing of President Mahama, to dedicating financing toward the expansion of such schools going forward.
World Bank-Funded Model Schools Announced
The Minister disclosed that government has completed the approval process for a World Bank facility and is now at the procurement stage for the construction of ten new model Category A schools across the country, including provisions for special needs education in Sunyani and Ho.
He outlined the planned locations of these model schools, including one in the Oti Region, one in the Western North Region, one between Yapei and Kulmasa in the Savannah Region, one in Wa in the Upper West Region, one in the Northern Region, one in Kasoa in the Central Region, and another in Nima within the Greater Accra Region.
He further disclosed plans for a US$300 million project near Ayawaso, between GBC and neighbouring areas, with President Mahama expected to formally cut the sod once procurement processes are finalised.
Defending The Case for Academic Standards
Iddrisu pushed back firmly against suggestions that the placement system should abandon academic standards altogether, arguing that a system without clear cut-off points would undermine competitiveness within the education sector.
“If you get aggregate seven, we will celebrate you, we will not celebrate an aggregate 30 or 40 because that academically cannot be compared to an aggregate seven,”.
Hon. Iddrisu
He explained that the core difficulty lies in matching 313,000 candidates seeking Category A placement against only 76,000 available vacancies, encouraging affected candidates to accept placement into Category B or C schools rather than viewing such placements as a setback.
Private School Inclusion and Category C Performance
The Minister highlighted that, for the first time, government had expanded placement options to include private Senior High Schools for candidates willing to attend them, noting that approximately 985 candidates applied under this arrangement last year, with ongoing engagement with the Ministry of Finance to address related payment matters.
He further challenged the assumption that Category C students inherently underperform, insisting that some students within that category outperform their Category A peers.
Turning to candidates who did not qualify for automatic placement due to scoring nine in core subjects, Iddrisu confirmed that these candidates have been directed toward self-placement based on their individual performance, with the CSSPS Secretariat actively responding to their applications.
He explained that under previous systems, such candidates would historically have been excluded entirely from secondary education access, whereas the current arrangement provides them a pathway, however limited, to continue their education.
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