The school selection and placement process for candidates of the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) officially begins today, Tuesday, May 27, and will end on Friday, June 6.
Announcing the commencement of the exercise at a press briefing, the Coordinator of the Free SHS (FSHS) Secretariat, Sena Okity-Duah, introduced new guidelines for the selection of schools ahead of this year’s BECE. She disclosed that teams from the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service and the FSHS Secretariat will be deployed nationwide to conduct sensitization exercises. These are aimed at educating candidates, parents, and school authorities on the updated selection procedures.
New Selection Requirements
Candidates are required to select a total of seven schools: five main choices and two alternatives, listed in order of preference. Of the five main schools, at least three must be boarding institutions, while the remaining two should be day schools.
Candidates may select Category B and C schools as either day or boarding. However, the new guidelines prohibit selecting more than one school from Category A and more than two from Category B. While schools from Category C may be chosen freely, candidates are not permitted to select all five main schools from that category.
“Once a candidate is placed in a selected school, that choice cannot be changed,” Madam Okity-Duah emphasized.
Special Considerations for TVET and STEM Aspirants
Candidates interested in pursuing pure TVET programmes must choose five institutions across Categories A, B, and C, which may be either day or boarding.
Students aspiring to careers in engineering, medicine, or space science are encouraged to prioritize STEM-focused schools across all categories.
Parental Involvement is Mandatory
The FSHS Secretariat stressed the importance of parental involvement in the selection process. “The school selection form must be signed by a parent or guardian and submitted to the headmaster of the candidate’s junior high school,” Madam Okity-Duah stated. “Parents should also retain a copy of the completed form for reference.”
Credit: Collins Frimpong
