Editor-in-Chief of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has bemoaned Ghana’s struggles with the computer placement system for BECE candidates whilst other African countries are going to Mars.

“Some countries are on their way to Mars but we (referring to Ghana) are still struggling with computer placement. This is very sad. Even Nigeria is going to space with satellite so when will Ghana get to that point,” he quizzed.

Mr Pratt believes the unsuccessful nature of placing JHS graduates in SHS is as a result of the inequality in educational facilities.

He said some schools in Ghana are equipped with science laboratories to aid in the study of science whilst others struggle to even see a test tube in their laboratories.

He added that those in authority are aware of these inequalities but feel adamant to solve them.

Kwesi Pratt Jnr also decried the turning Polytechnics into Technical Universities which he says serves two different purposes

“Polytechnics and Universities are meant to do two different things so when you turn all Polytechnics into Universities, what will happen to the purpose the Polytechnics were supposed to serve?”

Background

The Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) was reportedly hacked, frustrating parents and guardians whose children were either not placed or wrongly placed.

The situation has led to people besieging the Black Star Square for solutions to their problems as the Ministry had established a centre there to address difficulties of parents and their children in each region.

Anxiety, coupled with sheer heat and overcrowding at the centre caused some of the teenagers trapped in the centre of the activities to faint.

Cameras captured some of the fainted pupils being carried into ambulances stationed at the venue. But the education minister in an interview stated that he is convinced some of the people who collapsed at the Black Star Square while in a queue to get placement into Senior High Schools (SHS), faked it.

According to Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, most of them had no business at the solution centre because they had already been placed in the schools of their choice.