PANIC and desperation have gripped many parents and pupils still looking for Form One places as the ban on entrance tests fees earlier this year has created more problems than it sought to address. Government prohibited schools from charging entrance test fees to prevent the fleecing of parents, who were complaining about the exorbitant fees by some schools.
Though entrance tests had over the years easily become a fundraising gimmick by schools, they also created a mechanism where schools would place prospective students well in advance in a comparatively more orderly manner. With the absence of entrance tests this year, chaos and panic prevailed as parents, with their children in tow, thronged schools in unmanageably large numbers with many of them failing to secure places even when their children had passed.
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