On JoyFM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, September 3, 2026, Sherif Sulemana, Coordinator of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), disclosed that up to 10 percent of the declared vacancies in Ghana’s top senior high schools are set aside for protocol admissions.
Using Aburi Girls’ Senior High School, which announced 800 vacancies this year, as an example, Mr Sulemana explained that half of the protocol allocation is given to school heads. “The alumni with their schools and their head teachers — based on their contribution, the head teacher can give them the concession of having the ward admitted in their school,” he said. “So the 5 percent on the 800, that should give you about 40 or so.”
He added that the remaining share is distributed among other stakeholders, including the Ghana Education Service (GES) and Technical and Vocational Education Institutions (TVET). “There are other stakeholders in the educational system. So you have a quota for GES. Usually what we do is that based on the request we receive, then we are able to allocate that to them. We don’t give them a blanket because you may even give them and it may not be up to whatever they receive,” he explained, noting that TVET allocations also come from the 5 percent pool.
When asked whether the ceiling had ever been pushed beyond 10 percent under pressure, Mr Sulemana said the system was still new. “This is our second year. We didn’t encounter that last year. So we may not be able to say,” he replied.
He stressed that the quota would not become a loophole for candidates who did not earn their places on merit. “We are committed to ensuring that people are placed based on merit, and we will not even abuse it to have people who ordinarily… because of certain factors,” he said. “It’s a commitment of the Honourable Minister to ensure that people are placed based on merit. So even if it’s protocol, it should be within a certain threshold.”
