Prez Mahama calls for investigation into ‘disappointing’ 2025 WASSCE performance

President John Dramani Mahama has raised concerns over the alarming drop in results from the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), describing the performance as disappointing and mind-boggling.

According to the President, the disappointing outcomes present a significant challenge for his government, parents, and society as a whole.

Speaking at the launch of the STEMBox initiative for primary schools in Accra on Thursday, President Mahama disclosed that he had directed the Minister for Education to carry out a comprehensive review of the examiners’ report to determine the reasons for the drop in student performance.

“I have asked the ministry to analyze the examiners’ report and determine what went so disastrously wrong. It is mind-boggling that with the same teachers and conditions, one batch performs so poorly compared to the previous one,” he said

The President’s remarks follow recent data released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), showing particularly low performances in Core Mathematics and Social Studies.

WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, revealed that the number of candidates obtaining A1–C6 passes in Core Mathematics dropped from 305,132 in 2024 to just 209,068 in 2025, a decline of over 96,000 passes.

This drop has resulted in an overall pass rate of only 48.73%, leaving more than half of the candidates without the necessary grades for tertiary education.

Chief examiners have pointed out that this decline in performance is primarily due to students’ weaknesses rather than issues with the examination itself. In Mathematics, students faced challenges in areas such as representing information through diagrams, solving real-life problems, constructing cumulative frequency tables, and interpreting data.

Similarly, in Social Studies, candidates struggled to explain government policies, analyze the economic implications of expensive funerals, and discuss Ghana’s collaboration with United Nations agencies.