The government is set to upgrade 20 Category B Senior High Schools to Category A status as part of efforts to create more opportunities for students seeking admission to the country’s most sought-after schools.
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu also announced plans to construct 10 new model Category A schools, bringing the total number of institutions targeted for Category A status to 30.
The move is intended to ease the pressure on the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), particularly the intense competition for limited vacancies in Category A schools.
Mr Iddrisu said the government had secured $300 million from the World Bank through the STARR-J initiative to support the infrastructure expansion. He further disclosed that he had directed GETFund to dedicate between GH¢250 million and GH¢300 million in the 2027 funding formula to expand facilities in 10 Category A schools.
Speaking on TV3 on September 11, he said, “We are going to convert 20 Category B schools into A and we will build 10 new model Category A schools in the country.”
The Minister said the upgrade was necessary because demand for Category A schools had outpaced available capacity following the introduction of Free SHS.
The Tamale South MP cited the 2026 placement exercise, during which 328,000 students selected Category A schools but only 76,000 vacancies were available, creating a significant mismatch.
The 2026 CSSPS Crisis: A Mismatch of Demand and Capacity
The announcement comes against the backdrop of widespread concern over the 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), which exposed a stark imbalance between where students wanted to go and where vacancies existed.
According to the Ministry of Education, 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, competing for just 76,417 declared vacancies . The mismatch was even more striking when compared with available spaces in other categories: Category B schools declared 250,366 vacancies, while Category C schools had 468,652 vacancies .
Overall, 527,932 candidates were successfully placed out of 604,567 qualified candidates in the 2026 BECE, representing an 87.3 per cent placement rate . However, 76,635 qualified candidates were not automatically placed, with many of them having selected Category A schools as their first choice .
Education Ministry Press Secretary Hashmin Mohammed explained that the challenge was not a shortage of vacancies across the country — the CSSPS declared 859,828 vacancies nationwide, far more than the number of candidates who sat for the BECE — but rather the concentration of demand around a relatively small number of highly sought-after schools .
Understanding the Category System
The Ghana Education Service categorises Senior High Schools into three groups: Category A, B, and C. Category A comprises highly competitive and sought-after schools such as Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High (PRESEC), Prempeh College, Accra Academy, Mfantsipim School, Holy Child, and Wesley Girls’ High School . Category B includes very good schools with a wide range of programmes, such as West Africa Senior High and Labone Senior High .
According to Nat Tetteh, a member of the Government Communications Team and Director of the National Service Authority, the categorisation itself contributes to the intense competition. “Maybe we need to re-look at the whole nomenclature around saying that, oh, this school is category A, category B, category C,” he said on Starr FM’s Morning Starr, arguing that once schools are divided into categories, parents naturally gravitate towards those perceived as the best-performing .
Tetteh also questioned why some highly resourced STEM schools established under the previous administration remain classified as Category C, despite having the facilities and resources to offer quality science and mathematics education .
The STARR-J Initiative and GETFund Support
The $300 million World Bank loan is part of the Secondary Education Transformation for Access, Relevance and Results for Jobs (STARR-J) project, which aims to expand access to and improve the quality and relevance of secondary education in Ghana .
According to World Bank procurement documents, the project is organised under three interrelated components: expanding and rehabilitating physical infrastructure to eliminate the double-track system and extend equitable access; strengthening teaching quality, TVET relevance, and the availability of learning resources; and building data systems, school leadership capacity, and accountability mechanisms .
Key procurement activities under Component 1 include the construction of 10 new Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Institutions, the upgrade of 50 SHS/TVIs, and the rehabilitation of 150 SHS/TVIs . The Education Minister’s announcement of 10 new model Category A schools aligns directly with the World Bank project’s infrastructure targets.
On the domestic funding side, Parliament approved GH¢9.8 billion for GETFund in 2026, with GH¢4.2 billion allocated to the Free Senior High School programme and GH¢1.2 billion to the tertiary sub-sector . The Minister’s directive for GH¢250 million to GH¢300 million to be dedicated to expanding infrastructure in 10 Category A schools under the 2027 funding formula represents a targeted allocation within GETFund’s broader investment mandate.
A Systemic Challenge Eight Years in the Making
Minister Iddrisu framed the infrastructure deficit as a long-standing challenge that has been building since the introduction of the Free SHS programme.
“So, if over an eight-year period, you introduce a Free SHS and fail to support it with expanded infrastructure to accommodate the exponential increase in numbers, you don’t blame government for it,” he said .
The Minister maintained that expanding infrastructure in the most sought-after schools is essential to creating more opportunities for students and reducing the pressure on the placement system .
The government’s plan to upgrade 20 Category B schools and construct 10 new model Category A schools is expected to significantly increase the number of places available in top-tier institutions. However, the success of the initiative will depend on whether the new and upgraded schools are perceived by parents and students as offering comparable quality to the existing Category A institutions — a perception challenge that the categorisation system itself may continue to reinforce.
