Another year, another scheduled time for “Back to school”, and need I say, it is also time for placements into Senior High School, Senior High Technical School, as well as Technical and Vocational institutions across the country.

For years, there has been a lot of drama, causing needless worries for students and their parents in the placement system controlled and directed by the Ministry of Education. This year is no exception.

Desperation

The news headlines this week depict the state of mind of many stakeholders: anxiety, desperation, and sometimes lost hope.

As at the time of going to the press, we have entered the fourth day of the anxious moments for students with no end in sight for some. So, for almost a whole week, a nation is musing about school placements for its young minds. 

But seriously, should that process not be one of the easiest in the education transition system? It certainly does not look so from what is out there in the media so far this week.

As is being reported all over, deep into the night and early dawn, parents and their wards are queuing up at the Resolution Centre set up at the Teachers’ Hall in Accra and apparently, in some other parts of the country. Focusing on the main Centre in Accra, it is disappointing to hear that, as early as dawn, people are lining up just to get early attention in sorting out their school replacement.

The desperation turned sour earlier in the week, however. It was reported that on the first day, the atmosphere was so charged that angry individuals trying to get closer access to be heard used force and ended up with the destruction of property as they broke glass windows and doors. That was an unfortunate happening; no matter the frustration, no one should take it upon themselves to behave lawlessly in matters of the sort.

Indeed, no system is perfect, but a system that has consistently, for years, become an albatross for students must be scrutinised with a microscope by those in charge. 

Is it a case of garbage in, garbage out?  Have we been confronting the issues head-on each year as they are presented to us?  Maybe one can say that it is only partially so, and that is why a whole Resolution Centre has been set up to ease the burden.  However, the issues seem to be compounding, and as of the fourth day of the week, the anxiety is still on the faces of some.

Replacements

The available information, which makes the situation even more alarming, makes one wonder whether, by 18^th September, when schools re-open, issues with replacements would have been sorted out. Take, for example, the magnitude of the affected numbers in this year’s brouhaha. The news is that as many as 54,000 non-replacements needed to be sorted out.

The number of affected individuals at the beginning contributed to the commotion one saw and is still seeing at the Computerised School Selection and Placement Resolution Centre set up by the Ministry to assist in sorting out the problem.

Issues that have come out, and the reason huge numbers thronged the Centre, were to find solutions to errors such as being assigned to day schools that are miles away from their homes. There are those looking for day schools near home but have been assigned boarding schools they never asked for.

There are also those who complained on camera that “their subjects had been changed by the system”, and then those who were captured on camera saying that they got schools they never asked for.

With only a few days to go before schools reopen, anxiety, no doubt, heightens for the thousands whose issues remain unresolved and have been left in limbo, waiting endlessly to be sorted out.

Yes, GES must be commended for successfully placing 527,932 candidates, amounting to 87.3 per cent of the 604,567 candidates who qualified for placements across the country.

But the thing is, it takes only one rotten ingredient to spoil a soup, and that is why the issue of the 54,000 awaiting placements has tipped the scales in the past few days, with distasteful headlines. It is almost as if not much has been done by the Ministry of Education regarding school placements.

Is the online process failing us then?  Is there a way out for the Ministry to get candidates and parents out of this quagmire? These are some of the questions we are all asking so that critical learning can inform the way forward next year.

Hopefully, this time next year, the story would be a joyful one.

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The writer can be contacted via email at vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com