The release of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results has sparked intense national debate, following a noticeable dip in performance after years of steadily rising pass rates under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy.
Core Mathematics recorded the steepest decline, dropping from 66.86% in 2024 to 48.73%. Social Studies fell from 71.53% to 55.82%, while English Language and Integrated Science also saw marginal reductions.
For many education analysts, the results pose an uncomfortable but essential question.
Are Ghana’s schools declining in quality, or are we simply witnessing the impact of a bold crackdown on entrenched examination malpractice?
From where I sit, this downturn is not a failure, it may be a long-delayed correction.
This year’s performance cannot be separated from the alarming rise in exam infractions over the past several years.
WAEC data between 2017 and 2024 show a deeply compromised assessment system.
Between 2021 and 2024 alone, 146,309 candidates were implicated in cheating schemes.
Cases rose from 10,386 in 2021 to 62,046 in 2024, a more than six-fold increase. In 2024, 13.6% of all candidates were involved in some form of malpractice.
Violations included collusion, impersonation, smuggling of materials, and widespread digital leaks across WhatsApp and Telegram.
WAEC’s five-year data shows a troubling pattern of exam irregularities, with more than 532,000 subject results withheld, nearly 39,000 results cancelled in 2024 alone, and hundreds of full results annulled each year, underscoring persistent weaknesses in exam integrity and supervision across the country.
For years, however, prosecutions were minimal, until now.
Ahead of the 2025 WASSCE, the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) announced an uncompromising stance against cheating. Invigilators were warned of instant dismissal; candidates were cautioned to rely on their own preparation.
The results indicate that WAEC took firm action this year, cancelling the subject results of 6,295 candidates, annulling the entire scripts of 653 others, and placing several additional cases under investigation as part of efforts to safeguard exam integrity.
Probes into alleged collusion across 185 schools are ongoing. Already, 35 individuals, including 19 teachers, have been prosecuted, with 19 convictions secured.
This marks a clear departure from previous years, during which civil society organisations such as Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) repeatedly raised concerns about systemic malpractice with little official response.
Eduwatch’s Executive Director, Kofi Asare, has consistently argued that unrealistic performance expectations and political pressure to celebrate Free SHS outcomes fuelled widespread cheating.
He has long advocated the use of technology, including CCTV, to restore integrity to examinations.
There is no denying that Free SHS has expanded access and reduced financial barriers for countless families, including mine, as someone who understands how poverty can crush aspiration.
It is partly why I continue to support brilliant but needy students nationwide.
However, critics maintain that the intense focus on expanding enrolment has overshadowed concerns about learning quality.
University lecturers have repeatedly raised red flags about widening deficits in foundational skills among Free SHS graduates.
Some institutions have even contemplated entry tests to assess readiness.
“We’ve sacrificed quality for quantity,” lamented Prof. Martin Oteng Ababio of the University of Ghana in September 2024, citing overcrowded lecture halls and underprepared students.
This year’s results may therefore represent a shift from inflated outcomes toward genuine merit, a view shared by both the GES and the Ministry of Education.
The 2025 WASSCE results, then, are not a national embarrassment. They are a painful but necessary course correction.
Education is the backbone of national development, and when certificates lose credibility, the consequences ripple across society, employers lose confidence, universities are forced to lower academic thresholds, and the wider economy ultimately bears the cost.
As nonprofit LEADIF cautioned, Ghana cannot afford to produce “excellent grades but hollow minds.”
Integrity ensures that success is earned, not fabricated.
It rewards diligence, builds confidence, and prepares young people for innovation and leadership.
For those of us committed to education and nation-building, this moment calls for prioritising quality over optics, and pushing for stronger teacher training, improved infrastructure, and technological tools that support honest learning.
While the reasons behind the performance decline must be carefully interrogated, the conversation must remain free from political point-scoring.
What Ghana needs now is a sober recalibration of its education system.
Going forward, the country must sustain strict action against exam malpractice with transparent sanctions, strengthen teaching and learning through smaller class sizes and better-resourced schools, invest in continuous teacher development, and depoliticise the education system so that outcomes reflect genuine learning rather than political point-scoring.
At this pivotal moment, one truth stands out: discipline and integrity are non-negotiable if we are to raise a generation capable of driving national development.
The real concern is not that performance dipped, but whether we are courageous enough to accept this as the price of restoring credibility to our education system.
Source: Myxyzonline.com
