The release of the provincial results for the West African Senior High School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) has confirmed the unfortunate and sickening trend in the Ghanaian education system that is glossed over every year – that of stark failure.
Every year thousands of students sit the exams, and every year over half of them fail at least one of the three core subjects, the most crucial ones in the development of one’s education.
Maths, English and Science – is it any wonder the wider Ghanaian population lack such critical thinking skills and know next to nothing about what is happening in the real world? It all starts from your education.
Per the provisional results released by WAEC for this year’s WASSCE, the failure rates for these subjects is astronomical. For English Language, those who obtained A1-C6 (the grades that would get you into the tertiary level), were 125,065, comprising 53.19% of the number of candidates. 59,725 (25.40%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 46,595 (19.82%) had F9 – total failure.
The results were even worse for Maths. 65,007, representing 27.68% of the students, obtained D7-E8 whilst 89,477 (a whopping 38.10%) had F9.
Science was scarcely any better – with 32.32% getting, D7-E8, with 18.09% obtaining F9.
These students, collectively over half of the candidates, have failed at least one of these crucial subjects, meaning they would be thrown into the pool of incessant remedials if they really want a tertiary education. That entails spending a fortune to write and rewrite, some never passing.
The problem is deep rooted, considering it occurs every year. There is something really wrong with education in Ghana, and we have been ignoring the warning signs year after year after year – mortgaging away the future of most of the young people in the country.