Extra Vacancies For BECE Candidates Who Opted For 30 Percent Quota

There are enough vacancies for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates who opted for the 30 per cent quota for placement into senior high schools and technical institutes.

Vacancies available for the 60,142 candidates that chose the 30 per cent quota are 112,248, leaving out 52,106 extra vacancies for them. After exhausting the vacancies, the 52,106 would be added to the rest of the candidates, representing 70 per cent.

Statistics made available by the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) indicate that 60,142 of the total 376,859 candidates for the 2012 BECE opted for the 30 per cent while vacancies declared in schools are 151,251.

At the live placement of the 30 per cent of candidates on Thursday, the Minister of Education, Mr Lee Ocran, said the Ghana Education Service (GES) received 374,161 results of the total of 376,859 candidates that wrote the BECE this year.

He said total vacancies by the SHSs were 151,251 while the re-entry candidates were 1,657. There were also 70 foreign candidates.

Mr Ocran said the 30 per cent was for those who attended junior high schools (JHSs) within 10-mile radius of SHSs in their catchment areas, adding that it was based on merit and vacancies available.

The minister noted that the placement exercise was very transparent and that was why the media were invited to the exercise.

The acting Systems Administrator of the CSSPS, Mr Kwasi Anokye, said 26,127 candidates had been placed under the 30 per cent quota.

This means that 34,015 candidates who opted for the 30 per cent quota would not get their first choice schools and programmes.

They would be placed in other choices (schools) they made with different programmes.

The National Coordinator of the CSSPS, Mr Samuel Oppong, said the placement was done in order of merit.

He said the placement of remainder of the candidates, 70 per cent, was competitive.

A total of 376,859 candidates from 11,164 public and private JHSs across the country wrote this year’s BECE.

The candidates represented a 4,033 increase over last year’s figure of 372,826.

In all, 203,394 males and 173,465 females sat for the one-week examination.