Parental Pressure and Protocol Continue to Undermine Ghana’s School Placement System, Warns Former Education Chief
Charles Aheto-Tsegah, the former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has raised serious concerns about the persistent challenges plaguing the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), attributing its ongoing issues to the unchecked influence of protocol.
Speaking on Channel One TV on Saturday, September 27, 2025, Aheto-Tsegah emphasized that the system, designed to streamline and fairly allocate secondary school placements for students across Ghana, is being significantly undermined by external pressures from parents and influential figures seeking to bypass the official process.
Aheto-Tsegah described protocol—where parents or guardians exert pressure on school headmasters to secure admissions for their children outside the CSSPS framework—as the “small elephant in the room” that has grown into a major obstacle. He explained that this practice, which allows some students to gain admission through unofficial channels, compromises the fairness and equity that the system was intended to ensure.
“The protocol issue has been expanding over time, and it’s something we must tackle head-on if we are to create a truly fair and equitable placement process,” he stated during the interview.
The former GES boss went further, critiquing the foundational design of the CSSPS itself. He argued that the system was flawed from its very inception, describing it as “dead on arrival” due to its inability to effectively address the protocol problem. “From the beginning, we knew protocol was an ever-present issue, but we didn’t establish proper mechanisms to manage it. Instead, we allowed it to persist, which has weakened the entire system,” Aheto-Tsegah noted.
He stressed that this failure to implement robust safeguards has led to recurring confusion and dissatisfaction among parents, students, and educators each year as the placement process unfolds.
The CSSPS was introduced to create a transparent and merit-based system for placing students into senior high schools, relying on their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results and school preferences. However, Aheto-Tsegah’s remarks highlight a critical gap between the system’s intent and its real-world application. The influence of protocol, he argued, not only undermines the credibility of the CSSPS but also disadvantages students who rely solely on the official process, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds who lack the connections to navigate unofficial channels.
Aheto-Tsegah called for urgent reforms to address the protocol issue, urging education authorities to take decisive action to eliminate these external pressures. He suggested that stronger regulations, stricter enforcement, and greater transparency in the placement process are essential to restoring public trust in the system.
“If we want a system that is fair and gives every child an equal opportunity, we must kill this small elephant called protocol,” he reiterated.
The issue of protocol in school placements is not new, but Aheto-Tsegah’s comments underscore the need for a comprehensive overhaul of how the CSSPS operates. As Ghana continues to expand access to secondary education under the Free Senior High School policy, ensuring an equitable and efficient placement system remains a critical challenge for the education sector.
Without addressing the root causes of protocol and its impact, Aheto-Tsegah warned, the CSSPS will continue to face criticism and fail to deliver on its promise of fairness for all student
