Statistics and data available indicate that results of this year’s West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have witnessed a significant improvement but there is still more work to be done, Dr Ahmed Jinapor, a lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, has said.
Concerns have been expressed by chiefs, politicians and educationists about the 2016 WASSCE results released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Tuesday August 9.
According to WAEC, only 53.19 percent of students who sat for the WASSCE passed in English, with only 32.83 percent passing in Core Mathematics. Additionally, only 48.48% of students secured passes in Integrated Science.
It has emerged that less than half of the 247,262 students who sat for the examination obtained the minimum grades to gain admission into tertiary institutions.
Although some Ghanaians believe these results are the worst in recent years, Dr Jinapor said the outcome of the 2016 WASSCE was an improvement on previous years’ though he was quick to add that the marginally better performance of students was still not the best.
Speaking on TV3’s New Day on Saturday August 13, he said: “If you look at data that is being provided, 2016, 2015, [and] 2014, you will realise that there has been some improvement. The data shows that there has been an improvement, but, like it or hate it, notwithstanding the improvement that we have chalked within the past years using 2016 as a reference point, the result is not the best because we are talking about 53 per cent passing…
“If you have 53 per cent [passing]… what it means is [that] at the end of the day, over 40 per cent cannot move onto the next stage.”
