The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has formally demanded the removal of the 15% priority placement quota in the senior high school (SHS) allocation system, arguing that the policy gives public‑school students an unfair edge over their private‑school peers.
Justice King Essel, GNAPS First Vice President, said the reduction from 30% to 15% does not address private‑school concerns and called for a system that offers every child equal access to second‑cycle education.
Speaking on Citi News Digest on Saturday, September 12, Essel explained that the quota was originally introduced to help students from deprived areas gain entry to schools near their communities. He warned that defining deprivation largely by public‑school attendance is problematic.
"Unfortunately, the deprived schools have been wrongly defined. So the impression being created is that when people attend public schools, then that means that they are coming from low‑income groups. But that is not correct," he said.
Essel noted that some private schools operate in deprived communities under difficult conditions and should not be excluded from consideration when policies aim to support disadvantaged students.
He cautioned that the priority placement policy could undermine private‑school sustainability by encouraging parents to move their children from private to public schools in pursuit of better placement chances. Declining enrolment could make it harder for private schools to pay teachers and cover operational costs, especially as many charge relatively low fees.
"And so these actions go a long way to prevent these schools from growing and so that means that you are helping to collapse them," Essel warned.
He maintained that students should receive equal opportunities in the placement process, irrespective of whether they attended public or private basic schools.
