The Executive Director of the Institute of Education Studies (IFEST), Dr Peter Anti, says the ‘Placement for sale’ exposé is the best piece of proof of undue machinations in senior high school selection.

According to him, the investigation is the most revealing following other irregularities that have been detected through previous research on the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

“After years of implementing this, if you read research works on the purported evaluation of the CSSPS, you’d see that these points are being made by various researchers in their articles that there seems to be manipulation of the placement process. And this is the greatest evidence that we’ve had so far as the placement corruption issue is concerned,” he said.

He added his voice to the many saying that the basic objective of the computerised placement system has been defeated.

According to him, the CSSPS was introduced to address challenges such as headmasters supposedly benefiting financially, difficulty of students assessing secondary school education and delay in admission processes through the use of the manual placement system.

He said the computerised placement system was introduced to ensure fairness and transparency in the deployment of students to schools.

The Executive Director, explained that some of the problems revealed now could have been dealt with should there have been an evaluation on the CSSPS policy after at least ten years of its implementation.

However, he is advising that since the problems are being revealed now, authorities should review the policy in order to make some changes in the placement system.

According to him, the Ghana Education Service (GES) should build an “in-house” system that would prevent further manipulations.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anti wants the police to launch an investigation into the issue.