Officials of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) have cautioned parents seeking changes to their wards’ senior high school placements that not every complaint will result in a change of school.
The warning comes as thousands of parents and their wards continue to visit the National Resolution Centre over challenges arising from the 2026 SHS placement exercise.
For some parents, the concern is that their wards have been placed in schools they do not want, despite listing other institutions as their first or second choices.
However, CSSPS officials say dissatisfaction with a placement does not automatically mean an error occurred.
‘We Cannot Change It for You’
A CSSPS official explaining the placement process to some aggrieved parents at the centre said candidates who deliberately selected highly competitive schools should not expect their placements to be changed simply because they were not admitted to their preferred institutions.
According to the official, the selection process was designed to take candidates’ examination results into account before school choices were made.
“This year we decided to let the selection be done after the results are released so that if your ward gets a grade like 30, you don’t select a school like Aburi Girls or Okuapeman but rather Osu Presec or Asuom.”
He said some parents nevertheless selected highly competitive schools for their wards and later returned to demand changes after the system assigned them alternative schools.
“Some parents still selected big schools for their wards and now we have given the child a school, you’ve come that we should change it. We cannot change it for you.”
Not Every Complaint Is a Placement Error
The official explained that CSSPS distinguishes between parents who are dissatisfied with a placement and cases where there may have been an actual error in the system.
He said some students had been placed in schools that were not among the eight choices submitted by their parents.
Such cases can be reviewed, but a review does not necessarily mean the student will be transferred to one of the originally selected schools.
According to the official, some candidates were placed elsewhere because their results did not qualify them for any of their selected schools.
“We gave you that school because when we looked at the system, you don’t qualify for any of the schools you selected,” he said.
He added that where a candidate does not meet the required aggregate for the selected schools, the placement may remain unchanged.
“So even if you bring such a complaint and we look at your aggregate and it’s not good, we won’t change it for you. We’ll tell you to go to that school because we even helped you by placing you there,” he added.
Cases That Can Be Corrected
CSSPS officials, however, said there are circumstances in which the system can intervene and correct a placement.
The official cited the example of a student who was placed as a day student in a school located far from the family’s home.
He mentioned a student living at Maamobi who was placed as a day student at Ada SHS as an example of a case that could be brought to the centre for review.
Errors in candidates’ personal information captured in the system can also be corrected.
“If your ward is a boy but the system recognized him as a girl, that is a system error so we’ll change it for you,” he said.
Such cases, he stressed, are different from parents simply seeking a more preferred school after their wards have already been placed.
What Happens to Unplaced Students?
The process is different for candidates who did not receive any placement at all.
The official said parents or guardians of such students can visit an internet café and indicate that their wards were not placed.
The portal will then display schools with available vacancies, allowing the candidates to make a new selection from the available options.
The self-placement option is therefore intended primarily for students who did not secure any placement, rather than candidates who already have a school but want to replace it with a more preferred institution.
CSSPS officials are urging parents to understand the distinction as the 2026 placement resolution exercise continues.
