Seen videos of Minister H visiting schools to monitor reporting and ensure schools are ready to admit students. Good! Also, read a distress post from a facebook follower. (Attached). Though not irregular, concerning! As I indicated during the citizens’ review of the 2026 school placement exercise, placement itself is not the main challenge. Every year, virtually everyone eventually gets placed, either automatically or manually. What matters is the % of placed students who actually report to school. Last year, about 18% of placed students did not report. That is roughly 100,000 students; the highest ever since free SHS. From the cases I engaged with, a significant number involved candidates placed as day students in “foreign” districts: Distance and the cost of private accommodation is the barrier. There is also the cost of reporting. In some cases, a parent needed GHS 5,100 for prospectus items, PTA-related charges and other fees (bed etc). For families without that money, the child may simply not report. (Eduwatch, 2025). Ideally, education authorities should follow up with parents of students who do not report by the end of the first week, establish the reason and provide support where necessary. Ghana needs to institutionalise this now. I urge Minister H to instruct GES and TVET Service to: 1. Generate a list of all placed students who did not report last week. 2. Contact every affected parent via phone to establish why the student has not reported. 3. Categorise the cases (inappropriate day placement, financial difficulty etc...) 4. Escalate cases requiring intervention to the school placement officials, district assemblies. 5. Where appropriate, provide financial support for students facing genuine barriers to reporting. 6. Publish weekly reporting data, showing both placements and actual reporting rates by region and district. The goal of Minister H should be: no placed student should disappear from the system and become a mere statistic. Eduwatch reiterates that the 2026 Placement will ultimately be measured by the % of candidates placed and enrolled. “A good shepherd searches for the missing sheep”-Larteh Proverb! Ref: Africa Education Watch, “Free SHS Admission Costs: Reviewing The 2025/26 SHS & TVET Harmonized Prospectus,” 21 November 2025.