How to Select Your Senior High School 2021

Some students and their parents and teachers make mistakes in the school selection process simply because they do not take a few minutes to read and understand what is required.

In this detailed and well-explained article we will talk about the following:

• The GES Guidelines
• The Conditions for the selection of schools
• The Compulsory Day Student Option
• Type of School Placement
• 12 frequently asked questions about school selection & placement

The GES Guidelines

The GES releases two important documents containing information each year to help students, their parents, and teachers in the school selection process.

First is the school's register (usually an updated version of the previous year) and second is the school selection guidelines. These are the two major documents you need to help you in selecting your senior high school.

The schools' register comprises all public and private second cycle schools including technical and vocational second cycle institutions. The register also details important information such as the categories of schools, their location, codes, programmes, residential status, etc.

You need this information to be able to easily pick your schools accordingly without any unnecessary mistakes.

Use our search tool on this website to easily bring up the information on any specific school you want to review.

You can also visit Myshsrank.com to find more details about each school.

You also need to know the various categories and what the GES says about how to select schools from them.

Categories of Senior High Schools You Must Select from

1. Category A Senior High Schools, usually made up of 55 senior high schools classified as the top-performing schools over the years. (You can select only one school from here)
2. Category B Schools (You can select only two schools from here)
3. Category C Schools (You can select all your first 4 choices from here)
4. Category D Schools (A list of all category A to C schools but with only DAY STUDENT OPTION)
5. Category E Schools (List of all SHS that offer technical courses and all purely Technical & Vocational second cycle schools)
6. Category F Schools – this is a list of all private senior high schools
7. Category G Schools – this also lists all private technical & vocational second cycle schools

The next very important information is the conditions you must observe to select your school to avoid painful mistakes.

The Conditions for Selection of Schools

In total, there are 10 important conditions you must observe when selecting your senior high school.

1. Now a candidate can select in total 6 choices of schools as released for the 2021 selection.
2. You must choose five (5) Schools, that is your 1^st to 5^th choices from Category A, B, C and D.
3. Your five choices of school must be in your order of preference. This simply means the school you like first should be listed first, in that order.
4. You must select programmes and accommodation status in each school of choice. This means that for each school you select indicate on the form the course you want to do and whether you want to be a day or boarding student.
5. You cannot select more than 1 school from Category A. This means you can select only 1 from Category A schools.
6. You can select only two schools from Category B.
7. You can select all your 5 choices from Category C
8. You must select a compulsory day school as your 6th Choice from Category D.
9. Alternatively, you can select your 6th Choice School from Appendix 3 with an option for Boarding
10. If you wish to pursue purely technical or vocational programmes you must select all six (6) TVET School Choices from Category A, B and C.

Important Addition for 2021 Selection

1. Appendix 3 is a new addition that contains special boarding schools according to the GES. You are free to select only your 6th Choice with boarding option from this list.

The Compulsory Day Student Option

One important piece of information here is, students and their parents must consider schools that are within their current place of residence, so that should the student be placed in their 6^th choice they can easily commute to the school and back home as a DAY STUDENT.

As there are many more people going to senior high school, and many preferring to attend SHS as boarding students, there is always a keen competition as explained by the computerised school placement system in use.

As of 2021, candidates must select a day school as their 6th choice from Category D.

Type of School Placement

Senior High School placement is largely done through what is known as the Computerised Schools Selection Placement System (CSSPS) by the GES after WAEC releases the results.

The GES explained further that in practice there are three types or modes by which placement is done under the CSSPS as briefly explained below.

• Automatic Placement

This is largely the main process of placement. It is the process by which the CSSPS places students by merit or performance into one of their chosen schools in descending order, and this is done automatically without any manual intervention.

To understand in detail how the computerized placement system works read how the computerised senior high school placement system works step by step.

• Self-Placement

This type of placement is what most students pray against. Unfortunately, in some instances, a student may not be successful in securing a placement into any of their choices which may be due to several factors such as performance, high competition in the selected school for boarding space, programme space etc.

Under this circumstance and once again as part of measures to ensure everyone gain admission as much as possible, self-placement is encouraged and gives students the opportunity to go login to the CSSPS portal and select from schools with available vacancies.

• Manual Placement

The GES explains that there are some peculiar situations in which some candidates are placed manually. The following categories of candidates are those that can be placed manually:

1. Special needs and gifted candidates (visually/ hearing impaired)
2. Seminarians – these are students who desire to be trained for the future priesthood in seminary schools. Under this situation, it is the seminary institutions that conduct their own interviews and examination exercise and select specific candidates best suited for the purposes of the seminary, thereafter they submit the list to the GES for processing.
3. Protocol Allocation – according to the GES A fraction of the declared vacancies is reserved for protocol allocation for schools. This allocation is mainly used to serve stakeholders of the schools such as chiefs whose land the schools are established, alumni, etc.

In addition to this important school selection information, there are some very frequently asked questions about the process which the GES has provided very clear answers.

Some of these questions include:

• Is it possible for someone with aggregate 7 not to get access into a particular school but someone with aggregate 10 can get into that same school?
• Is it possible for someone who did not choose a particular school to be placed into that school? – here the answer is an emphatic NO.

Do read more on this at 12 frequently asked questions about senior high school selection & placement.