This year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates will start selecting their second cycle schools from Monday, July 20 to August 7, 2026, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has said.
It has consequently directed regional directors of education to inform all metropolitan, municipal and district directors of education within their jurisdiction “to ensure their full participation” in the exercise.
The GES, in a circular to all regional directors of education signed by the Director of Schools and Instructions Division of the GES, Prince Agyemang-Duah, invited all metropolitan, municipal and district directors of education to attend a training and sensitisation exercise on the 2026 Selection Guidelines and Placement Procedures for the specific purpose.
The nationwide training and sensitisation exercise, it said, had been scheduled to take place from Wednesday, July 15, 2026 to Tuesday, July 29, 2026.
“This training and sensitisation exercise is intended to provide deeper insight into the selection guidelines and enable you to offer effective oversight throughout the exercise,” the circular, dated July 6, 2026, said.
Past years
Unlike the past years where candidates selected second cycle schools before sitting for the BECE, the policy has been revised this year to enable candidates to access their performance and strengths before making their choices.
This year’s BECE candidates would be required to choose two Category ‘A’ senior high schools, one with boarding houses, and the other a day school within their district for the next phase of their education.
The adjustment is part of measures to improve the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) to ensure smoother placement after the release of results, and to address repeated placement challenges under the CSSPS programme.
In all, candidates would choose eight SHSs this year instead of seven as it was last year.
The BECE was written from May 4, 2026 to May 11, 2026.
In all, 620,141 candidates, comprising 304,349 boys and 315,792 girls, representing an increase in last year’s figure by almost 2.7 per cent from 20,395 schools, sat for the examination across the country.
The examination was conducted in 2,303 centres across the country, supervised by 2,303 supervisors, supported by 2,070 assistant supervisors and 21,791 invigilators.
Assurance
The GES expressed firm assurance that all qualified candidates would be placed.
It said in May this year that comprehensive arrangements had been put in place to accommodate every qualified student into second cycle school when the 2026 academic year begins on September 18.
In a statement dated May 14, 2026, the service urged the public to disregard reports that painted a completely different picture that had been circulated on social media especially.
“The report circulating in sections of the media suggesting that about 72,000 students risk not being placed is speculative and does not reflect the reality.
We, therefore, urge the public to disregard it,” the GES said.
The service said all qualified candidates would be placed in senior high schools and technical institutions, adding that sufficient infrastructure and facilities had been made available nationwide to absorb incoming students.
