Ghana’s 509,862 Senior High School (SHS) candidates began the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on Wednesday, rejoining the regional May to June timetable and ending five years of disruption to the unified examination calendar.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) confirmed the examination officially opened with the Oral English paper, which Ghanaian candidates had written as a standalone national paper throughout the disruption period. This year, the paper was sat simultaneously with candidates across the five WAEC member states: Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Ghana. The examination runs through to June 19.
The return matters beyond symbolism. The COVID-19 pandemic forced member states off the traditional schedule in 2020, pushing that year’s WASSCE to between July and September, and the 2021 sitting further back to August and October. The gradual realignment since then reaches its conclusion with this year’s fully synchronised regional examination.
WAEC built specific security measures into this year’s sitting to reduce examination leakage. The council delayed the printing of question papers to narrow the window in which materials could reach unauthorised hands ahead of centres opening. Additionally, Ghana’s papers this year are scheduled to begin earlier than Nigeria’s, accounting for the one-hour timezone difference between the two countries. Officials confirmed the adjustment is a deliberate countermeasure against inter-country question sharing, a recurring challenge in regional examinations.
WAEC Head of Public Affairs John Kapi confirmed all materials were prepared and distributed in line with the official schedule. “What they need for the exams is ready,” he said.
The Ashanti Region leads all regions with 127,702 candidates, followed by the Eastern Region at 70,099. The Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions together account for 67,739 candidates, while the Central Region registered 61,303 and Greater Accra recorded 48,099. The Northern, North East and Savannah zones combined produced 33,155 candidates. The Upper West Region has the fewest at 9,249.
Across the national cohort, female candidates outnumber males by a substantial margin: 284,588 women against 225,274 men. The trend holds across virtually every region, reflecting a shift in SHS enrolment patterns that has made girls the majority of Ghana’s examination cohort.
The examination cycle began earlier in April with practical assessments and project work for candidates offering Visual Arts, Home Economics and related technical programmes. Wednesday’s Oral English paper formally opens the written series, with dozens of core and elective subjects to follow over the coming weeks across hundreds of centres nationwide.
Results from this year’s sitting will determine access to tertiary institutions for the largest cohort Ghana has entered in the regional examination in recent years.
