About 50,000 candidates who participated in the 2026 BECE are set to miss out on senior high school placement because they failed either English Language or Mathematics.
Of the roughly 620,000 candidates who wrote the examination, about 565,000 have been placed and the results are expected to be announced on Friday, September 4, 2026.
The Coordinator of the CSSPS, Sherif Sulemana, revealed the figures during a Wednesday interview with Joy FM.
According to him, passing both English Language and Mathematics is a mandatory requirement for placement, irrespective of a candidate’s overall aggregate.
He also announced changes to this year’s placement process, including decentralised complaints centres and digital admission downloads for successfully placed candidates.
Addressing concerns about the complaints centres not being available at the district level, Education Minister’s Press Secretary and Spokesperson, Hashmin Mohammed, said resource constraints had influenced the arrangement.
“That would have been the ideal situation,” he said, adding that the authorities would consider extending the system to the district level if the regional arrangement proved insufficient.
Mohammed added that call centre lines would be available to assist candidates who live far from their respective regional resolution centres.
He further explained that candidates would no longer need to travel to collect admission letters, as the letters would be included with their placement.
Meanwhile, Sulemana highlighted the intense competition for places in some Category A schools, particularly Aburi Girls’ and Achimota.
He said the two schools had a combined total of about 2,100 vacancies but attracted more than 36,000 applications.
Aburi Girls’ recorded 8,225 applications for approximately 800 vacancies, while Achimota received about 28,000 applications for around 1,300 places.
Sulemana said the competition was especially high among candidates with aggregates ranging from six to 12. About 3,000 candidates in that category applied to Aburi Girls’, while roughly 14,800 did so for Achimota.
“Those are the realities within which we operate, and we want the general public to understand,” he said.
He emphasised that placement decisions are based on more than aggregate scores alone.
