The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has reiterated its demand for the immediate elimination of the 30 percent priority placement policy for students from public schools by the Computerised Schools Selection Placement System (CSSPS). GNAPS contends that the CSSPS lacks the necessary elements of democratic school policy implementation, such as transparency, fairness, and equity.
In a statement signed by its President, Dr. Damasus Tuurosong, GNAPS cited the story of Beatrice, a student from a private school, to justify its call for the abolition of the 30 percent system.
Beatrice achieved excellent grades on the BECE but was not placed in her first choice school, Wesley Girls Senior High School, while her neighbor and friend, who got an aggregate of 19, was placed in an A-graded senior high school of her choice.
GNAPS maintains that such discrimination against private school students is due to an unfair policy that allocates 30 percent of all available vacancies in Grade A senior high schools to BECE candidates who attended public schools, before the remaining 70 percent is shared on merit among all students.
GNAPS believes that such an unfair policy undermines the hopes and aspirations of hardworking children and devalues the significance of the BECE results.
It questions the rationale behind denying a child attending a private school in a remote part of the country a Grade A SHS while his counterpart attending a public school in an economically advantageous part of the country receives a 30% head-start in the placement process.
Consequently, GNAPS calls on all advocates for a just, fair, and equitable education system to join forces and demand the abolition of the 30 percent priority placement policy.
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