A total of 76,635 candidates who qualified for placement after the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) were not automatically placed into Senior High Schools, Senior High Technical Schools and technical and vocational institutions.
The figure, derived from official placement data announced by Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Clement Abas Apaak, represents about 12.7 percent of the 604,567 candidates who qualified for placement.
Of the qualified candidates, 527,932, representing about 87.3 percent, were successfully placed through the 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
Dr. Apaak said the challenge is not an overall shortage of vacancies but a mismatch between the schools candidates prefer and where spaces are available, with demand heavily concentrated in Category A schools.
Category A schools received 313,283 first-choice selections for only 76,417 declared vacancies, meaning first-choice demand was more than four times the available spaces.
The situation was markedly different in the other categories. Category B schools received 176,614 first-choice selections against 250,366 vacancies, while Category C schools recorded 123,577 first-choice selections against 468,652 vacancies.
Dr. Apaak urged candidates who were not automatically placed to use the self-placement system to select from schools and programmes with available vacancies.
Overall, 623,072 candidates sat the 2026 BECE, an increase of 19,744 over the 603,328 candidates recorded in 2025. Of the 527,932 candidates successfully placed, 276,521 are females and 251,411 are males.
The Deputy Minister said opportunities have also been expanded through the inclusion of 85 private Senior High Schools and Senior High Technical Schools in the Free SHS programme for the 2026/2027 academic year.
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