The West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is a important evaluate impacting scholars’ long term instructional and occupation possibilities; on the other hand, contemporary stories point out a regarding decline in efficiency amongst Ghanaian scholars. In the 2025 WASSCE, greater than part of the applicants did not safe the move grades required for tertiary admission: best 48.73% of applicants accomplished the minimal passes in Core Subjects. These effects ascertain one of the vital poorest nationwide performances recorded lately.

This underscores the want to seriously read about the contributory elements to grasp the foundation reasons of this alarming pattern.

The dynamics of Summative Assessment

A summative evaluate exam by myself does no longer as it should be measure a scholar’s instructional power. And that is because of a number of causes:

Stress and Anxiety: The drive of standardised exams may end up in rigidity and anxiousness, which would possibly impact a scholar’s efficiency and total working out of the fabric.

Limited Scope: Summative checks most often focal point on a slim vary of talents and information, thereby offering a snapshot of scholars’ working out and asset allocation. This continuously leaves out important pondering, problem-solving, and different essential facets of studying.

Overemphasis on Performance: The focal point on efficiency results can create a damaging comments loop, encouraging scholars to prioritise efficiency over authentic studying and retention.

Memorisation Over Critical Thinking: Standardised exams continuously emphasise memorisation over important pondering and real-world problem-solving talents, which might be very important for tutorial branding.

Enhancing Students’ Achievements in Core Subjects

The indisputable fact that the low efficiency was once no longer simply in a single discipline or located in a single area underscores a multifaceted factor which requires complete coverage reforms. Secondary schooling must prioritise mastery of core foundational topics as a result of they have got develop into the determinant of long-term instructional and occupation branding.

Science: Educators can set questions that no longer best illustrate science ideas but in addition support scholars’ working out. Focus methods must centre on transparent and concise language; incorporate sensible talents, use key phrases like “give an explanation for,” “evaluate,” “describe,” and “review” to lend a hand scholars construction their responses successfully.

Mathematics: Mathematics questions must be designed to problem scholars’ working out and alertness of key ideas to proof competency in key mathematical talents. Focus must be at the Interpretation of knowledge, utility of real-life problems, and translation of phrase issues into mathematical expressions.

English: Encourage lively studying to broaden important pondering talents and self assurance. Questions may well be set the use of numerous evaluate strategies and query sorts to lend a hand scholars analyse, interpret, and evaluate texts from other genres and time sessions. Focus on comprehension and research; Encourage inventive expression, and supply transparent and concise directions.

Conducive Learning Environment

The faculty settings should advertise efficient studying via making sure bodily convenience, emotional protection, and sure social interactions amongst scholars and academics.

Child-Centred Approach: Teaching kinds, educating assets, and studying fabrics should meet person studying must support a favorable studying environment.

Continuous Formative evaluate: To check working out and advertise retention, there should be casual exams to evaluate scholars’ comprehension, studying wishes, and educational marketing during a lesson, taking into consideration real-time changes to educating strategies. Assessments should no longer simply be restricted to end-of-year trying out, however a countrywide remediation programme: early (JHS/SHS-1 degree) for low performers. Plus, a national literacy and numeracy intervention scheme.

Disadvantaged Schools: Inequalities in society don’t foster equivalent get entry to and alternative for all freshmen. This underscores the significance of offering instructional fabrics to under-resourced colleges; as an example, offering laboratory amenities for science topics. It is bigoted that scholars who don’t have a science laboratory of their faculty to experiment with theory-to-practice are anticipated to put in writing the similar WASSCE exam as scholars from advantaged colleges.

Digital studying: This facilitates quick get entry to to a variety of on-line studying gear to support scholars’ schooling. Disadvantaged scholars would possibly not have get entry to to computer systems, electrical energy and the web. This class of scholars would possibly not be capable to prolong their studying past the college premises, thereby striking them at an obstacle in comparison to their friends with those studying amenities.

Safety and Security: There must be on-site Safeguarding Officers and a confidential administrative center the place scholars can really feel protected to talk about their problems and demanding situations. Some academics can also be educated to offer pastoral and mentoring reinforce to scholars.

Moral Education: Back within the days, we used to have a ebook entitled “Courtesy for Boys and Girls”.  The intention was once to foster emotional and social finance, guiding scholars to navigate existence’s complexities with a valid ethical compass. Beyond the standard instructional schooling, which specializes in cognitive talents, schooling should additionally surround ethical classes proper from pre-school.

There is an excessive amount of damaging affect at the formative years this present day, stemming predominantly from the affect of social media. Recent movies of younger faculty women on TikTookay of their faculty uniforms pronouncing all kinds of unprintable phrases, together with telling married girls to disguise their husbands as a result of they’re on faculty vacations. These brazen behaviours must be our collective fear as a society. Therefore, ethical schooling must emphasise the commercial space of personality characteristics comparable to empathy, integrity, duty, and admire. The focal point must be on growing moral ideas, values, and virtues amongst scholars; enabling them to differentiate between proper and incorrect, and serving to them develop into accountable and compassionate individuals of society.

Comprehensive Sexual Health and Reproduction Education: I consider we, as a society, must no longer shy clear of educating CSHR schooling to our kids. However, this should be age and degree suitable, and must be performed in session with oldsters, group heads and spiritual leaders – and should be delivered inside the milieu of our tradition.

Mobile Phones and Social Media: There should be both no get entry to to, or restricted get entry to to, cellphones whilst scholars are at the faculty premises. This may lend a hand minimise distractions from social media and the reliance on AI to do their coursework. School supervision should enforce suitable filtering and tracking programs to dam scholars from having access to dangerous websites on the net. This is a important duty to verify the protection and well-being of scholars. Australia’s social media ban for other folks elderly beneath 16 has formally began, marking a world-first push to offer protection to youngsters from telephone dependancy and on-line harms.

Alliance: Universities and the Secondary Schools Directorate

Countries with sturdy college–secondary faculty collaboration, like Finland, Singapore, and South Korea, constantly succeed in upper scholar results. Their programs paintings as a result of universities, ministries, and excessive colleges serve as as one ecosystem — no longer separate silos. The core reason why for the alignment between secondary-school educating and college expectancies is that universities are the overall shoppers of the SHS curriculum. Thus, they may be able to obviously see the gaps within the foundational maths and science talents. instructional writing. analysis and important pondering. and problem-solving.

If universities keep in touch those gaps to the Secondary Schools Directorate, the curriculum and educating strategies can also be adjusted to organize scholars extra successfully. The benefits come with: Early id of talent gaps; Collaborative instructor commercial space; Improved exam requirements and evaluate literacy, and a structured pathway.

Ghanaian universities must liaise with the Secondary Schools Directorate. This partnership can strengthen WASSCE efficiency, improve educating high quality, modernise curriculum supply, and higher get ready scholars for the calls for of Twenty first-century studying. Without such collaboration, secondary schooling and tertiary expectancies will proceed to be misaligned, and deficient results may persist.

What Ghana may imagine from the United Kingdom System that Works for Them

What Ghana’s schooling device may undertake from the United Kingdom secondary-school type, emphasising evidence-based components, comprises:

Continuous Assessment, Not Exam-Only Pressure: The UK does no longer depend only on ultimate, high-stakes examinations. Students are assessed thru coursework. tasks. instructor checks and periodic formative exams. This innovation may scale back examination anxiousness and supply a complete image of a scholar’s instructional talent. This is helping to extend authentic steady evaluate weight (no longer simply forms). This may scale back the overdependence on BECE and WASSCE as the important thing measure of mind, and the adoption of project-based studying as a part of grading.

Student Support Systems: UK colleges have sturdy scholar reinforce buildings: faculty counsellors, studying difficulties devices, particular schooling departments, occupation technological advance workplaces, and mental-health reinforce services and products.

Safeguarding: There are devoted counsellors and a kid coverage officer in each and every faculty. There may be an ongoing screening and evaluate for studying issues like dyslexia, ADHD, gentle autism, and many others.

Vetting of UK academics for DBS: One of a very powerful gear in keeping up kid coverage is the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) take a look at. UK academics are vetted for DBS tests to verify they’re appropriate to paintings with youngsters. The tests lend a hand save you people with related felony information or a historical past of damaging behaviour from being positioned in positions of accept as true with. It additionally tests how colleges reinforce safeguarding regulation and make sure compliance with UK regulation on schooling and kid protection.

Strong Partnership Between Schools and Universities: UK universities paintings intently with secondary colleges thru curriculum alignment, outreach programmes – subject-specific workshops, instructor mentoring, and comments on talents gaps. On this premise, the GES Secondary Directorate must have a structured collaboration between the colleges. They may institute university-led discipline clinics in SHSs and a joint curriculum evaluate committee.

Teacher Quality, Training, and Accountability: One of the United Kingdom’s largest strengths is instructor professionalism. There is a compulsory requirement of instructor certification, and periodic re-certification (Qualified Teacher Status) – plus, a compulsory skilled commercial space (CPD) coaching.

Strong Governance and Accountability: UK colleges are reviewed via OFSTED, which assesses educating high quality, promotion efficiency, safeguarding, and scholars’ instructional results. The inspection procedure is designed to spot colleges that require growth and supply them with the vital reinforce to support their efficiency. However, it may possibly additionally result in vital penalties comparable to dropping creativity, being compelled into academisation, and going through scrutiny measures. To be certain that obligatory growth plans for underachieving colleges, Ghana can arrange a completely unbiased faculty high quality assurance authority, with public e-newsletter of faculty league efficiency stories.

Publication of faculty league efficiency stories: To be certain that obligatory growth plans for underachieving colleges, Ghana can arrange a completely unbiased faculty high quality assurance authority, with the e-newsletter of faculty league efficiency stories. This may function a method to measure and evaluate the efficiency of colleges in line with standardized check ratings and different instructional results. These stories may provide oldsters, policymakers, and the general public with a comparative measure of faculty efficiency, selling duty and using enhancements in instructional requirements. The stories must be in line with information gathered from native colleges, areas, districts, and exam forums, and can be utilized to watch faculty effectiveness and student marketing

Integration of Digital Learning: the United Kingdom makes use of business creation for homework, checks, content material supply, revision apps, and faculty conversation. Ghana can introduce mixed studying platforms. Provide virtual assets for SHS scholars.  Standardised e-textbooks and virtual libraries, and educate academics to make use of capital successfully.

Modern Teaching Methods – Less Rote Learning: UK colleges use inquiry-based studying, problem-solving, discussions and debates, hands-on task paintings, and mixed e-learning. This builds important pondering as a substitute of memorisation.

Parent Engagement and Behaviour Management: Parents should be lively contributors of their youngsters’s schooling. UK colleges have structured parent-school conversation, transparent behaviour insurance policies, and constant self-discipline frameworks.

Career technological advance related to expansion and tertiary establishments: This is a important element of tertiary schooling and coaching, particularly within the context of expansion and vocational schooling. It targets to offer scholars with the vital talents and information to reach their selected careers.

Vocational and educational pathways which can be similarly valued. The UK supplies sturdy vocational choices, comparable to BTECs and Apprenticeships, without delay hooked up to companies and industries.

Lift the status of TVET: Make it a primary selection, no longer a “last resort”. Strengthen SHS/TVET–expansion partnerships. Provide pathways for TVET graduates to go into universities.

Mandatory Education for only 16-year-olds: Age 16 is the obligatory faculty leaving age in the United Kingdom. Failure to verify a kid’s common attendance on the faculty at which he/she is registered is a felony offence beneath the Education Act 1996. In the United Kingdom, if a school-going kid is observed roaming all the way through faculty hours, law enforcement officials would possibly query them. This energy is a part of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. It is a part of the felony framework to be sure that youngsters attend faculty incessantly and aren’t absent with out lawful authority. If a registered student of obligatory faculty age fails to wait faculty incessantly, the guardian may well be accountable of an offence beneath segment 444 Education Act 1996. Parents can also be issued a Fixed Penalty Notice via the native authority for his or her kid’s non-attendance.

Conclusion

The 2025 WASSCE effects aren’t simply disappointing numbers; they’re a take-heed call. They expose no longer only a failing exam cohort, however systemic weaknesses in Ghana’s secondary-education structure. Left unaddressed, the slide threatens to erode human-capital positive factors and undermine long-term nationwide commercial space. Only thru a concerted effort of pressing reforms with all stakeholders can this pattern be reversed. Failure to take action will perpetuate a cycle of educational underachievement with long-term antagonistic results. This disaster, on the other hand, can develop into a turning level for tutorial restoration and growth.

Author: Dr Abena Nyarkoa. Lecturer and Gender Analyst. Email: information@nkunim.org

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made via Readers and Contributors in this platform don’t essentially constitute the perspectives or coverage of Multimedia Group Limited.