President John Dramani Mahama has voiced significant concern regarding the notable decline in performance observed in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), labeling this situation as “mind-boggling.”
During the launch of the STEMBox initiative aimed at primary schools, the President remarked that the disappointing results have emerged as a substantial concern for the government, parents, and the wider community.
Mahama revealed that he has directed the Minister of Education to conduct a thorough review of the examiners’ report to identify the root causes behind the drastic decrease in student performance.
“This has become a matter of great concern for the government, parents, and the public in general. I discussed this with the minister, and I have requested that they analyze the examiners’ report to understand what could have gone so terribly wrong.
“It is indeed mind-boggling that, despite having the same teachers and similar conditions, one group of students performs so poorly compared to another,” President Mahama remarked.
His statements come in light of disclosures from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), which indicated that candidates exhibited poor performance in critical subjects, especially Core Mathematics and Social Studies.
As per WAEC’s Head of Public Relations, John Kapi, Core Mathematics experienced the most significant decline, with A1–C6 passes plummeting from 305,132 in 2024 to 209,068 in 2025—a decrease of over 96,000 passes. The overall pass rate dropped to 48.73%, resulting in more than half of the candidates failing to achieve the necessary grades for tertiary education.
Chief examiners have attributed the unsatisfactory performance not to the quality of the examination itself, but rather to the weaknesses exhibited by the candidates.
They emphasized challenges in aspects such as depicting mathematical information through diagrams, addressing real-world problems, creating cumulative frequency tables, and analyzing data.
In Social Studies, candidates faced difficulties in articulating government policies, evaluating the effects of expensive funerals on national development, and discussing Ghana’s collaboration with United Nations agencies.
