Head of Public Relations at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Daniel Fenyi, has indicated that the Service is gradually resolving the challenges associated with the Senior High School (SHS) placement exercise.

Addressing the media, he disclosed that only 5% of students seeking admission to Senior High Schools (SHS) are yet to be placed.

According to him, 527,000 students had so far been automatically placed, representing an increase from 483,000 students in 2025 and 447,000 in 2024.

“So if you ask me what changed, what changed is a significant improvement in the automatic placements that were done this year. Then we are talking of the number or percentage of placed students hitting about 93 to 95% of the students placed, as we speak.”

“I want to emphasise that if you have a system that has been able to place about 95% of the students through automatic and self-placement put together, you cannot, by any stretch of imagination, call such a 95% efficiency a crisis. It cannot happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, the 2026 Senior High School placement exercise has been extended by one week by the Ministry of Education. As such, the resolution centres will be open from today, Monday, September 14, to Friday, September 18, to allow students with outstanding placement issues to secure schools ahead of the September 18 reopening.

Of the 9,948 cases reported at resolution centres across the country, 4,531 have been resolved by the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) Secretariat.

This was disclosed by the Press Secretary to the Education Minister, Hashmin Mohammed, while addressing the media. According to him, 33,726 students have successfully secured placement in various schools out of the 53,887 students eligible for self-placement.

“The resolution centres will remain active from Monday till Friday, and we are hoping that by Friday, the numbers should be able to go down because on September 18, they will report to school,” he added.

“Out of the 53,887 category of self-placement students, we have had 33,726 who have been able to self-place themselves into various schools and out of 9,948 reported cases at the resolution centres throughout the country, the CSSPS Secretariat has been able to resolve 4,531 so far,” he said.

Challenges with CSSPS include issues ranging from unsuccessful placement and difficulties with school selection to requests to change placements from day to boarding and vice versa.

Some frustrated parents who spoke to the media on Wednesday, September 8, said that after failing to resolve their concerns in previous days, they had to spend the night at the facility and return at dawn to seek help.

According to a parent “I left home as early as 3 a.m. and got here at 4 a.m. The officials started work around 8 a.m. We were asked to write our reasons for changing from day to boarding. After collecting the forms, they told us to wait.I came early today and pleaded with them to attend to us. So I am still waiting”.

Meanwhile, candidates who obtained a grade 9 in English Language and/or Mathematics have been offered the opportunity to choose an available school themselves through the CSSPS.

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, September 7, Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Clement Apaak, noted that the affected individuals are select schools and programmes with available vacancies through the CSSPS.

“Accordingly, candidates who obtain a score of 9 in either English Language or Mathematics or in both subjects will be allowed to access the self-placement system and select from schools and programmes with available vacancies. The objective is to ensure that no young person is unnecessarily left behind whilst maintaining the integrity of the placement and examination systems,” Dr Apaak said.

As per the provisional results released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for the 2026 WASSCE for school candidates, a total of 74,692 candidates who sat for the exams obtained an F9 in Core Mathematics, representing 14.82 percent of the candidates who wrote the subject.

According to the results, 306,234 candidates, representing 60.75 percent, obtained grades between A1 and C6 in Core Mathematics. This means that while more than half of the candidates obtained credit passes in the subject, a significant number failed to achieve a passing grade.

Core Mathematics recorded the lowest A1-C6 performance among the four core subjects. In comparison, 315,094 candidates, representing 62.40 percent, obtained A1 to C6 in English Language, while 309,605 candidates, representing 62.08 percent, recorded grades between A1 and C6 in Integrated Science.

Social Studies recorded the highest performance, with 393,918 candidates, representing 78.04 percent, obtaining grades from A1 to C6.Core Mathematics also recorded a high number of F9 grades compared with the other core subjects.

Integrated Science recorded 76,136 F9 grades, representing 15.27 percent, slightly higher than the 14.82 percent recorded in Core Mathematics.

In English Language, 55,940 candidates, representing 11.08 percent, obtained F9, while Social Studies recorded the lowest F9 figure, with 39,416 candidates, representing 7.81 percent.