Ghana adopts Nigeria’s centralised tertiary admission system

T HE Ghanaian government is set to introduce a centralised placement system for admission into its tertiary institutions.

This followed visits by officials from that West African country to Nigeria to understudy the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in 2018.

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According to EduCeleb.com, an education website, the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education in Ghana, Kwesi Yankah, revealed this at a just-concluded stakeholders’ meeting in Koforidua, Ghana.

Professor Yankah had led some educationists and state officials to Nigeria in June 2018. The team was also said to have visited the United Kingdom for the same purpose.

Based on findings from both countries, among other deliberations, a committee chaired by Professor Cliff Tagoe submitted the Tertiary Education Policy Document on 1st November, 2018, to the ministry of education.

The committee proposed a Centralised university Admissions and Placement Service (CAPS) to replace the existing system described as “stressful” and “expensive” for applying into different universities in that country.

According to EduCeleb.com, Professor Yankah attended the 2018 Admissions Policy Meeting held by JAMB at Gbongan, Osun State, after which he met with officials in the Nigerian agency.

He had told the gathering of heads of Nigeria’s education institutions then that his government was considering adopting a similitude of JAMB to regulate higher education admissions, check multiple admissions and cut cost.

JAMB was established for the same purpose in 1978 to regulate University admissions before its mandate extended to polytechnics and colleges of education about two decades later.

Back in Ghana, appropriate grades in core subjects and electives from the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) form the basic requirements for admission across all schools, giving room for possible multiplicity of admissions and other issues already identified by the government.

Yankah has now revealed after the submission of the draft policy document that a management committee called the Centralised University Admissions and Placement Service (CAPS) would be inaugurated on Thursday, 17th January (today).

Excerpts from the committee’s report, according to EduCeleb.com, revealed that candidates would now have choices of institutions on a single platform.

“One proposal currently under contemplation by the ministry of education has also incidentally been proposed by this draft Policy document.

“It is the proposal for a Centralised university Admissions and Placement Service (CAPS) which replaces the stressful and rather expensive system of applying to separate universities in Ghana with a centralized system, where the applicants list their choices of university on a single platform.

“A central administrative and technical set up then facilitates the process of placement,” the document read.

The minister revealed that the national committee on CAPS would be chaired by the President of Presbyterian University College, Professor Adow Obeng.

Among those gathered at the stakeholders’ meeting were all 10 Vice Chancellors from Traditional Universities, representatives from technical universities, private universities, principals of colleges of education, regulatory bodies, the reform Secretariat of Ministry of Education, University Teachers Association, Tertiary Education Workers Union and others.