Furthermore, prior to the implementation of the CSSPS innovation, administrators of prestigious and well-funded schools arbitrarily and unilaterally set high standards for admission and personal cut-off grades in order to draw in only the most talented and exceptionally good students, at the expense of less gifted and rural students. In addition, parents and children had a very bad time during the manual system era when the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results were released. In order to secure their ward’s spot, anxious parents had to make the trek to the schools of their choice, find out if their child was admitted, and pay the admission price in full. If they didn’t, the spot would be handed to someone else.