A total of 527,932 candidates have secured placement into Senior High Schools (SHSs), Senior High Technical Schools (SHTSs), and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions under the 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
The figure represents 87.3 per cent of the 604,567 candidates who qualified for placement after the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra, Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Clement Apaak, said 76,635 qualified candidates were not automatically placed, largely due to intense competition for Category A schools.
276,521 Females Placed
Dr Apaak said the successful placements comprised 276,521 females and 251,411 males.
The 2026 placement results were released at 10:00 p.m. on September 4, 2026, following the completion of processing by the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Ghana TVET Service and technical teams.
A total of 623,072 candidates sat the 2026 BECE, compared with 603,328 candidates in 2025, representing an increase of 19,744 candidates.
High Demand for Category A Schools
According to Dr Apaak, the major pressure point in the placement exercise was the high demand for Category A schools.
He said 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, against only 76,417 declared vacancies.
Category B schools had 250,366 declared vacancies, while Category C schools reported 468,652 vacancies.
Of the candidates, 176,614 selected Category B schools as their first choice, while 123,577 chose Category C schools. Only 995 candidates selected participating private SHSs and SHTSs as their first choice.
Vacancy Mismatch, Not Overall Shortage
Dr Apaak explained that the figures suggested that the challenge was not necessarily a lack of space within Ghana’s second-cycle education system.
Rather, he said, the key issue was a mismatch between the locations and categories of available vacancies and the schools most preferred by candidates.
He noted that the high concentration of first-choice selections in Category A schools had resulted in many qualified candidates failing to secure automatic placement despite vacancies being available in other categories.
Candidates Urged to Use Self-Placement
Candidates who were not automatically matched with their selected schools have been advised to use the CSSPS self-placement system to select schools and programmes with available vacancies.
The Ministry of Education urged affected candidates to broaden their options and consider institutions and programmes outside the traditionally oversubscribed schools.
The Ministry said doing so would increase candidates’ chances of securing placement while helping to utilise available spaces across the second-cycle education system.
