04/09/2026
About 565,000 candidates who took the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) have met the requirements to be considered for placement into Senior High Schools (SHSs), according to the Coordinator of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) Secretariat, Sherif Sulemana.
The figure represents a significant portion of the nearly 620,000 candidates who sat for this year's examination, although about 55,000 candidates are expected to fall outside the placement criteria.
Speaking on JoyFM's Super Morning Show on Thursday, September 3, Mr Sulemana said an analysis conducted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) showed that 565,000 candidates had attained the minimum requirements for placement.
“Based on our analysis, we have about 565,000 qualified for placement this year,” he said.
Mr Sulemana explained that a candidate's performance in English Language and Mathematics plays a critical role in determining whether they qualify for placement.
He said candidates who fail either of the two subjects are not eligible for placement, regardless of their performance in other areas.
“Those people have not failed in either English or Mathematics. So, you are disqualified from placement if you have failed in either English or Mathematics,” Mr Sherif explained.
The disclosure comes as the authorities move towards the placement of successful BECE candidates into Senior High Schools and Senior High Technical Schools across the country.
While the overall number of candidates meeting the placement requirements is relatively high, the examination results also point to challenges in the academic performance of a sizeable group of candidates.
Mr Sulemana said the data showed that some candidates recorded extremely low marks in some of the core subjects, with such scores ultimately counting as failures.
“You find out somebody got one, somebody got ten over 100, somebody got, say, twelve, twenty over 100, and that qualifies as a failure,” he said.
He subsequently confirmed that about 55,000 candidates did not meet the requirements needed to qualify for placement.
“There are about 55,000,” he stated when asked about the number of candidates who did not qualify for placement.
The performance figures further showed that only a minority of candidates achieved the strongest aggregates. According to Mr Sulemana, approximately 17 per cent of candidates secured aggregates between 6 and 18.
“If you look at the data for the performance of the candidates, we only had about 17 per cent of the candidates getting aggregates from 6 to 18,” he said.
That percentage translates into roughly 107,000 candidates, highlighting the relatively small proportion of students who attained aggregates within that range.
The distribution becomes broader when the aggregate range is extended to 24. Mr Sulemana said about 35 per cent of candidates, representing approximately 252,000 students, recorded aggregates between 6 and 24.
“We only had about 252,000, or about 35 per cent of the candidates, getting from aggregate 6 to 24,” he added.
With close to 620,000 candidates having participated in the 2026 BECE, the figures provide an early indication of the scale of the upcoming placement exercise.
Approximately 565,000 candidates are expected to enter the placement process, while about 55,000 candidates may be excluded because they failed to satisfy the stated requirements, particularly the requirement not to fail either English Language or Mathematics.
The figures also offer a snapshot of the academic performance of this year's BECE cohort as schools and education authorities prepare for the next stage of the transition from basic education to second-cycle institutions.
