According to the association, the unfair system must be abolished as it impedes the rights of private school students.

Speaking at the Ghana National Association of Private Schools Week Launch, themed “2024 Elections: The Private Education Manifesto,” the President of the Association, Prof. Damasus Tuurosong, fumed over this issue, describing it as a cruel way of forcing children to abandon private schools for state schools.

He said, “What bothers private schools is that, when parents manage to pay WAEC’s exorbitant BECE charges for their children to sit the examination, such children may be denied placement into the Category A senior high schools that they deserve.

“The reason? There is a monster called 30% priority placement system, which reserves for public schools 30% of all available vacancies in Category A schools before the rest of the 70% vacancies are allocated on merit to both public and private schools.”

He added “If the system were meant to allocate admissions to children who are either disadvantaged by physical disabilities, geographic location, economic circumstances, or even programmes of study, we would recognize that as an attempt to bring about equity.

“But placement that is based on ownership-type of the school a child attends is a cruel way of forcing children to abandon private schools for state schools.”

Prof. Damasus Tuurosong asserted the need to abolish this system.

“The position of GNAPS is that this unfair and corrupt system of determining which child enters Category A SHS must be abolished.”