ALLOW SCHOOLS TO ADMIT 30 PER CENT OF STUDENTS (Page 29)

Story: Vincent Adedze, Tamale

THE Headmaster of the Kalpohini Senior High School, Mr Shaibu Wilberforce Adams, has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to revert to the policy that enabled second cycle institutions to admit 30 per cent of its fresh students from the school’s locality.
According to him, most of the communities where some schools were located had expressed concern about the inability of the school authorities to consider students from their localities.
Such a measure, he said, would therefore help promote a healthy working relationship between the schools and the communities, thereby reducing to the bearest minimum petty squabbles between the two parties.
The issue of not allowing schools to admit at least 30 fresh students from their respective localities has deepened encroachment, land litigation and trespassing issues in our schools, Mr Adams observed.
Mr Adams was speaking to the Daily Graphic in Tamale on various concerns expressed regarding the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
The headmaster, however, indicated that after the selection exercise, “there were 15 vacancies in my school, but I was given 30 students so the school had to send back the rest of them”.
A visit to a number of schools by this reporter showed that all vacancies had been filled.
“I must confess that the computerisation process has eased the pressure on heads of institutions and changed the perception of most parents that they used the selection exercise to make money,” he stated.
Currently, he said out of the 300 fresh students the school has admitted, not even 100 of them were girls and this was not the best.
Vacancies at the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) and the Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO) have all been filled up.
The Assistant Headmaster of TAMASCO, Mr Dan Biitir, indicated that most often students admitted to the school did not accept the admissions and this issue also created vacancies.
The Headmaster of GHANASCO, Alhaji Tahitu Mahama, said there were 29 vacancies after the computerisation exercise but these had been filled up.