SHSSelect

SHSSelect began as a university-era project after its founder observed how difficult senior high school selection could be for students and parents. Families must consider a school’s category, available programmes, gender rules, location and boarding or day options. A choice that looks suitable can still conflict with the selection guidelines. Mfidie Solutions now owns and develops the product as a live tool for BECE candidates and their families. More than 20,000 students have used it, based on internal platform records.

The difficulty was not simply finding a school. Families had to understand several GES conditions at the same time, then make choices in an acceptable order. The rules can limit how many schools may be selected from certain categories and require a particular kind of sixth choice. Programmes and residential options also affect eligibility. A paper list does not tell a family when a combination breaks a rule. It is easy to discover a problem late, after considerable time has been spent comparing schools. There was also a longer-term software problem: guidelines can change. If every new rule required a developer to rewrite the selection engine, the service would be difficult to maintain during the period when families need it most.

Mfidie Solutions develops the school data model, selection journey, eligibility checks, configurable rules, payment features and retrieval flow. The product grew from a problem identified by its founder during university and is now operated as a Mfidie Solutions product. The selection rules and updates are maintained by the product team; the GES issues the guidelines but does not operate or endorse SHSSelect.

We structured school information around attributes that matter to a choice: category, programme availability, location, gender and boarding or day arrangements. The application checks combinations as a student builds a selection, including category restrictions and the compulsory sixth-choice requirement. Rather than hard-code every guideline into an inflexible journey, we built a configurable rules system. When GES changes the guidelines, the rules can be updated without changing application code. Paid features sit alongside the selection process, while families can retrieve their saved choices.

• Translating written GES guidelines into precise checks was the hardest engineering task. We had to represent conditions that apply across a complete set of school choices, not just to one school.
• Guidelines change between selection periods. We addressed this by making the rules configurable, so updates do not require code changes.

Students and parents can build school choices with rule checks rather than relying only on their own interpretation of the guidelines. The configurable engine supports changes when new guidance is issued. Internal platform records show that 22,874 students have used SHSSelect as of October 2026. The service is independent of the Ghana Education Service.