The sharp increase in outright failures recorded in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) stems from deep rooted structural challenges in Ghana’s education system rather than representing an isolated incident, according to an assessment expert.
Professor Eric Anane, Director of Education at the University of Cape Coast’s Centre for Psychometric and Cognition, explained that the failure pattern across core subjects reflects weaknesses in teaching quality, limited learning time, and students’ inability to apply knowledge to real world problems.
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday, December 1, 2025, Professor Anane said Core Mathematics recorded one of the steepest declines, with the F9 rate rising from 6.10 percent in 2024 to 26.77 percent in 2025. This means one in every four candidates failed the subject outright.
Social Studies, typically seen as one of the more manageable subjects, also saw its F9 rate triple from 9.55 percent to 27.50 percent. A total of 122,449 candidates failed Social Studies with grade F9 in 2025, representing 27.5 percent of all candidates who sat the examination.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) released provisional results for the 2025 WASSCE for school candidates on Saturday, November 29, 2025. The examination attracted 461,736 registered candidates from 1,021 schools across the country.
Performance in Core Mathematics collapsed from 66.86 percent obtaining grades A1 to C6 in 2024 to just 48.73 percent in 2025. This represents an 18 percentage point drop and marks the lowest pass rate in the four year period from 2022 to 2025. A total of 114,872 candidates received grade F9 in Mathematics.
Professor Anane attributed part of the problem to insufficient contact hours at the senior high school level. He stressed the need to examine whether students are getting enough time to learn the curriculum assigned to them.
“We need to cumulatively examine whether students are getting enough time to learn the curriculum assigned to them,” he stated during the radio interview.
He noted that many schools lack libraries and learning resources, while students who commute under the current double track structure often lose valuable study time. The double track system was introduced to accommodate increased enrollment under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
The education expert also highlighted teacher shortages and misplacement, saying several schools continue to rely on teachers handling subjects outside their areas of specialization. He pointed out that many cases exist where schools do not have a Social Studies teacher, so another teacher is asked to step in, which affects quality.
Another major factor he explained is the shift in the nature of examination questions. Ghanaian students continue to struggle with application questions, a weakness rooted in decades of memorization based teaching methods.
“The more application questions WAEC introduces, the more our students fail,” Professor Anane observed. “We are teaching learners to memorise and reproduce, not to think and apply.”
He further pointed to challenges in textbook quality, oversized classrooms, and poorly implemented continuous assessment, which he described as inflated and not reflective of actual student ability. These factors combine to create an environment where foundational learning suffers despite students progressing through the system.
While noting that about 75 percent of students passed, which falls within a normal distribution pattern, he said the 20 point jump in failure rates is a worrying trend that demands urgent policy attention from educational authorities.
English Language performance remained relatively stable compared with other core subjects. A total of 69 percent of candidates obtained grades A1 to C6 in 2025, compared with 69.52 percent in 2024. However, the F9 rate more than doubled, moving from 5.88 percent in 2024 to 12.86 percent in 2025.
Integrated Science saw its F9 rate increase from 7.12 percent in 2024 to 16.05 percent in 2025. The subject recorded a pass rate of 57.74 percent in 2025, lower than the 58.77 percent achieved in 2024 and significantly below the 66.82 percent recorded in 2023.
Graphic Online’s analysis of the four year trend from 2022 to 2025 confirms that 2023 remains the strongest year for all core subjects. The decline began in 2024 and worsened significantly in 2025. The 2025 results are now lower than the 2021 outcomes in Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies.
In 2021, Mathematics recorded a pass rate of 54.11 percent, making the 2025 result of 48.73 percent the lowest in the period reviewed. Social Studies obtained 66.03 percent in 2021 but dropped to 55.82 percent in 2025. The subject reached its highest result in 2023 with 76.76 percent, making the 2025 figure 20.94 percentage points lower.
Of the 461,736 candidates who registered for the 2025 examination, 5,821 were absent, representing 1.26 percent. The registered candidates comprised 207,415 males and 254,321 females. In 2021, only 3,545 candidates were absent, representing 0.79 percent.
Professor Anane called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to revise its recruitment and deployment strategy, strengthen teacher professional development, and ensure textbooks and other learning materials are fit for purpose. He emphasized that addressing these structural issues requires comprehensive policy reform rather than piecemeal interventions.
The release of the provisional results was also marred by an unprecedented crackdown on examination malpractice. The Ghana Examinations Committee, at its 40th meeting on November 17, 2025, approved severe sanctions impacting thousands of candidates and dozens of educational personnel.
WAEC cancelled subject results for 6,295 candidates for bringing unauthorized materials such as notes, textbooks, and printed material into the examination hall. The Council annulled entire results for 653 candidates for possessing mobile phones in the examination halls.
Additionally, WAEC withheld subject results of 908 candidates and entire results of 158 candidates pending investigations into various suspected offenses. The subject results of candidates from 185 schools have also been withheld for alleged collusion, with investigations still ongoing.
John Kapi, Head of Public Relations at WAEC, stated in a press release that the Council is working around the clock to ensure withheld results are published before the end of December 2025, depending on investigation outcomes.
The examination integrity crisis resulted in arrests and prosecutions. WAEC reported that 35 teachers were arrested for examination malpractice. So far, 19 have been arraigned before court and convicted to fines or terms of imprisonment. The remaining 16 are yet to be presented before the courts by the police.
Beyond what the courts may decide, WAEC stated that the list of all 35 teachers will be presented to the Director General of the Ghana Education Service for further disciplinary action. This represents one of the most extensive crackdowns on examination fraud in recent years.
The Council cautioned stakeholders to be wary of fraudsters who promise to upgrade results for a fee. WAEC emphasized that all results are secured and can only be authenticated using its official verification system. Candidates can access their results online at the Council’s website, www.waecgh.org.
Educational policy analysts view the 2025 results as confirmation of systemic challenges that have accumulated over years of underinvestment in teacher training, inadequate infrastructure, and inconsistent curriculum implementation. The significant performance drop raises questions about the sustainability of gains made under education reforms introduced in recent years.
Critics argue that rapid expansion of access through Free SHS, while laudable, has strained existing resources and exposed capacity gaps in the education system. The double track system, implemented to manage increased enrollment, has faced criticism for reducing contact hours and limiting student teacher interaction time.
The failure rates in Mathematics and Social Studies are particularly concerning given their status as mandatory core subjects for tertiary education admission. Poor performance in these subjects potentially limits students’ progression to higher education and technical training programs that require strong foundational knowledge.
Professor Anane’s analysis echoes concerns raised by other education stakeholders about the quality versus access debate in Ghana’s education sector. While enrollment numbers have increased significantly, the 2025 WASSCE results suggest that learning outcomes have not kept pace with expansion.
The expert’s call for comprehensive manpower needs assessment, improved teacher deployment, and enhanced learning materials resonates with recommendations from previous education sector reviews. Implementation of such reforms requires sustained political commitment and adequate budgetary allocations beyond electoral cycles.
