The 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) starts today, with Oral English marking the start of the exams.

Ghanaian candidates, joining the rest of the West African candidates, write the WASSCE, marks the first time in about six (6) years.

In December last year, the Ghana Education Service (GES) announced that Ghana would rejoin the international West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), starting from the May/June 2026 examination cycle.

This was after, in 2020, the Akufo-Addo-led administration introduced the “Ghana-only WASSCE” under the then Education Minister, Yaw Osei-Adutwum. In the last five years, Ghanaian Senior High School candidates sat a localised version of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), separate from the international May/June exams written by Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and The Gambia.

Also, it was reported that, due to COVID-19, which became a global plague, Ghana adjusted its exam calendar to fit its own reopening schedule for schools, which differed from other WAEC member countries.

At the time, the government explained that the move was to deal with cross-border leakages of exam papers, which were undermining credibility. By isolating Ghana’s exam, they could better control distribution and monitoring.

However, following the release of the 2025 provisional results by the education regulator, GES announced in a statement dated December 1, explaining facts surrounding the 2025 WASSCE results.

Consequently, this year, Ghana joins the over 1 million students to sit for the exams. According to West African Examinations Council (WAEC), a total of 509,862 candidates are expected to sit for this year’s examination nationwide. The candidates comprise 225,274 males and 284,588 females.

The 2026 examination process had already begun earlier with practical and project work in subjects such as Visual Arts and Home Economics.

Although Ghanaian candidates have in recent years written Oral English as a standalone paper, this year’s exercise is being conducted simultaneously across all member countries of the Council.

2025 WASSCE performance Ghana

WAEC released the provisional results of the 2025 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on Saturday, November 29.

The results show a massive surge in outright failure rates (Grade F9) across all four core subjects compared to the 2024 performance.

According to the provisional results released by WAEC, the percentage of students who failed Social Studies increased steeply from 9.55% in 2024 to 27.50% in 2025, representing a 188% increase.

The other core subjects, that is, Integrated Science and English Language, also saw a doubling of their previous failure rates.

For Integrated Science, the failure rate increased by 8.93%; that is, the 2024 rate was 7.12%, and in 2025 it increased to 16.05%.

The failure rate for the English Language also rose from 5.88% in 2024 to 12.86% in 2025. Core Mathematics recorded the sharpest decline, with the proportion of candidates who failed rising from 6.10% in 2024 to an alarming 26.77% in 2025, more than four times higher.

Consequently, only 48.73% of candidates achieved grades A1 to C6, a steep drop from the 66.86% recorded in 2024. In absolute terms, 209,068 candidates passed Core Maths, while 114,872 (26.77%) failed outright with an F9. Put simply, for every four students who sat for the exam, one failed Core Mathematics.

The core subjects are foundational: English, Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies are the backbone of Ghana’s education system. Failure in these means students lack the basic skills needed for higher education or employment.

The failure of core subjects by candidates this year comes with several major concerns, including career opportunities, social consequences, and the likely impact on the country’s economy.