The Executive Director of Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has expressed concern over the decline in students’ performance in English in the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), despite improvements recorded in several other subjects.
Mr Asare said the performance in Social Studies, Mathematics and Integrated Science showed encouraging gains compared with last year, but argued that the trend in English requires urgent attention, given the importance of literacy to students’ overall academic development.
Speaking on Citi News monitored by Kumasi Mail on Saturday, September 5, he said Social Studies recorded a pass rate of about 76%, describing it as the subject’s highest performance since 2014.
He also pointed to improvements in Mathematics and Integrated Science, with performance in the three subjects increasing by 12, four and 22 percentage points respectively over the 2025 results.
According to Mr Asare, the improvements suggest that some interventions introduced to address learning gaps identified in the previous year may be beginning to yield results.
“However, there’s a worrying trend of further decline in performance in English, which requires remedial action,” he said.
EduWatch warned that weaknesses in foundational literacy skills at the basic school level could undermine students’ ability to cope effectively with the demands of secondary education.
He therefore called for stronger interventions at the basic level, including the deployment of adequate numbers of teachers, improved learning resources, effective supervision and greater support and motivation for teachers.
His comments follow the release of the provisional 2026 WASSCE results by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
WAEC reported that 512,862 candidates from 1,022 schools were registered for the examination, comprising 225,270 males and 287,592 females. The figure represents an 11.07 per cent increase over the 461,736 candidates registered in 2025.
The Council also recorded 5,049 absentees, representing 0.98 per cent of the total number of candidates registered for the examination.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
