The placements of qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) students into senior high schools and technical institutes under the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) will be done by the middle of next month, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has stated. It said the move was to give the service enough time to map out the number of candidates to benefit from the 30 per cent quota being introduced for candidates entering senior high schools and technical institutes this year. President J. E. A. Mills in his State of the Nation Address this year announced that the policy to select 30 per cent of first-year SHS students from within 10-mile radius of where schools were situated was to be restored from the 2011-2012 academic year. That, he said, was because the government had noted with concern the rate at which the computerised placement mechanism, was blocking access to secondary education for pupils from basic schools in their catchment areas. The Head of the Public Relations Unit of the GES, Mr Charles Parker-Allotey, told the Daily Graphic that currently it was difficult to know the number of candidates interested in the 30 per cent quota. Consequently, he said, forms would be issued to those interested for them to fill, and then sent back for their placements to be done. He said the candidates interested in the 30 per cent quota were expected to submit their forms in a week’s time. Mr Parker-Allotey said a press conference would be held later this week to spell out the new decision taken. Before the release of the BECE results by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the GES had indicated that it had stated the development of guidelines for students who would be benefiting from the 30 per cent quota. The GES had earlier indicated that 70 per cent of the total candidates that qualified under the CSSPS criteria were expected to be placed by August 31, after which the rest of the candidates (30 per cent) would be placed in schools in their catchment areas in mid September. The GES last month appealed to parents, candidates and the general public to exercise restraint for it to conduct an efficient and credible placement this year. It was doing everything possible to carry out a credible exercise, hence the need for public support. The CSSPS was introduced in 2005 to replace the manual system of selection which was said to be fraught with corruption practices.