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Abolishment of CSSPS "premature"-Betty Mould Iddrisu

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Education Minister, Betty Mould Iddrisu, has termed the calls for the abolishment of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) as unfounded and prematured.

She said in a telephone interview on e.tv Ghana's Breakfast TV that she will not be pressurized to make premature and hasty decisions with regards to the CSSPS which would affect the lives of many children and parents.

Betty Mould Iddrisu's response comes after calls being made by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has called on the government to immediately abolish the CSSPS due to the irregularities that has engulfed this year’s placements.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its five-day Annual Plenary Assembly in Takoradi, the GCBC called for the abolition of the CSSPS and restoration of the four-year system of Senior High Education.

The nine-page communiqué which climaxed the annual plenary assembly held under the theme; “Good Governance for Peace” explained that after years of experimenting with the CSSPS, “we think that the time has come to abolish this system and replace it with a workable alternative.

According to the bishops, seven weeks into the first term, most students were still at home waiting to know which schools to attend, adding that there appeared to be more corruption, confusion and inefficiency in the system than the former one.

It observed that the massive failure at this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the inefficiencies of the Computerized School Selection and Placement System indicated that government was not listening to the people. But the minister for education, Betty Mould Iddrisu disagrees.

In a telephone interview on e.tv Ghana’s Breakfast TV, Betty Mould Iddrisu said her ministry had not yet received a report for this year’s CSSPS to do any evaluations on the outcome of the system.

“We have not done the evaluation. I as the sector minister have not received the final report. I have not sat down with the Directors and the GES to find out what went wrong and what the recommendations are. Every year we have problems with placement. I personally do not think that this year’s problem has been more drastic than the years before,” she said.

She said, however, that she was particularly disturbed by the anxiety and stress being experienced not only by the GCBC but by head teachers, teachers and parents.

Responding to the suggestion made by the GCBC that the three-year Senior High School system be reversed to the four years, Betty Mould Iddrisu said, “the four-year SHS system is not open for discussion. As far as this government is concerned we are firmly convinced that the three-year SHS is the way forward. We have closed the discussion for the possibility of the four year system, we have done our work, we see no merit in it and we are moving forward accordingly.”

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