More WASSCE candidates fail English, Mathematics papers – Study
More students from Ghana who sit the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have been obtaining grade F (Fail) in the English Language paper than in any of the other core subjects, a study by The Ghana Report has revealed.
Mathematics follows closely on the list of ‘Core’ papers Ghanaian students fail the most.
The study conducted by The Ghana Report involves a historical analysis of WASSCE core subjects; English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies between 2017 to 2019. The study shows that the number of Fs produced in English Language by the candidates from 2017 to 2019 has been going up steadily.
Out of a total of 155, 077 candidates who sat for the English language paper in 2017, 58,351, representing 20.35%, had F9 while in year 2018, 68,002, representing 21.61% from an estimated 147,232 students produced F9.
The situation was no different in 2019 as out of 167,733 candidates, 21.61% representing 74,038 had F9.
Core Mathematics, but for this year, also witnessed a situation where more of the candidates produced an outright fail. This means such persons cannot further their education in any tertiary institution in the country as per policy.
In 2017, 20.27% from a total candidate population of 122,450 had F9. The Mathematics failures in 2018 got worse as 31.58% out of a candidate population of 120,519 also produced F9. However, there has been a significant improvement in the performance over the previous two years as 13.54% from a total population of 223,737 had F9.
The West African Examinations Council on Monday released provisional results of candidates who wrote the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations in 2019.
According to a press release signed by the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, the highest number of students to pass a single core subject was recorded in the Social Studies exam with 257,828 (75.43%) candidates obtaining grades between A1-C6. The paper with the most failures were recorded in the English Language exam with 74,038 (21.61%) obtaining grade F9.
The country’s Education Ministry, just after the release of the WASSCE results posted on its website by comparing the performance of candidates in 2018 and 2019.It stated, “Massive Improvement in Core Subjects (WASSCE 2019).
Mathematics
2018 2019
38.33% 65.31%”
Many have attempted to find causes to the reason(s) why students in the country’s Senior High Schools (SHS) fail massively in the English Language paper.
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia, a poet, novelist and an occasional dabbler in article writing argues most students think a language which is more like a mother tongue is not worthy of study hence, many do not make a conscious effort at learning the principles governing it.
Some have also attributed the problem to the caliber of teachers who are trained to teach students in the various second cycle institutions in Ghana while others blame successive governments over the interference and seeming politicisation of education in the country.