Over 20k SHS graduates may re-sit WASSCE School Maths – MoE

The central government is considering allowing some Senior High School (SHS) students who failed mathematics in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School to re-sit the paper, the Minister of Education, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has announced.

In an interview monitored by Pretertiary.com, the Education Minister disclosed that about 30,000 students failed the 2025 WASSCE for School mathematics and could not obtain admission to tertiary institutions.

“I’m aware that about 30,000 students may not have been able to qualify for tertiary education because they were unable to pass maths or English,” the Education Minister said on TV3’s New Day programme.

The Minister in Charge of Education said the Ministry of Education (MoE) is studying available data to determine the number of students affected, with particular attention to those who failed mathematics.

“We are trying to look at the cost implications and probably to direct that all those students who are unable to pass in mathematics be boarded on to write this year’s WASSCE maths so that they don’t stay at home longer,” he stated.

Mr Iddrisu explained that in many cases, students performed well in other subjects of the WASSCE for School but were unable to meet entry requirements for tertiary education because of mathematics.

“In many cases, a particular student did well in every other subject except mathematics,” the Minister for Education said, adding that “If you are not careful, you may destroy the career path of those young people.”

The Education Minister stressed that the conduct of second-cycle school examination is the responsibility of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), not the Ministry of Education (MoE).

“I don’t interfere with assessment institutions. It is the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that conducts the examination,” Mr Iddrisu said.

A total of 461,640 candidates, made up of 207,381 males and 254,259 females, drawn from 1,021 second-cycle schools registered for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for School.

This figure represents a 0.22% increase over the 2024 entry figure of 460,611. The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School took place at 703 centres across the country.

Of the 461,640 prospective candidates who sat for the 2025 WASSCE for School, the West African Examinations Council says 5,821 candidates, representing 1.26%, were absent from the examination.

The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates commenced on Tuesday, August 5 2025, with the Visual Art Project work and continued with the written papers on Monday, August 18, 2025. The examination will end on Friday, September 19, 2025.

Out of that number, 220,008 candidates failed Core Mathematics, representing 50.54 per cent of all candidates. Only 48.73 per cent obtained grades A1 to C6, the minimum pass usually required for admission into many tertiary programmes.

This means that in Core Mathematics, 61.39 per cent of candidates obtained Grades A1–C6 in 2022, rising to 66.23 per cent in 2023 and 66.86 per cent in 2024, before dropping sharply to 48.73 per cent in 2025.

Meanwhile, the Mathematical Association of Ghana (MAG) has blamed the poor performance in the 2025 WASSCE for School Mathematics on the students’ lack of comprehension of the English language.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview, the Vice-President of MAG, Timothy Dougbatey, said that once students did not have the skill to read and comprehend, they could not do Core Mathematics.

“The poor performance in mathematics is due to the students’ comprehension of the English language, because Mathematics is written in English.

So they have to translate the English language to mathematical language before they can solve the problem,” the Vice-President of the Mathematical Association of Ghana, Timothy Dougbatey, stated.

He disclosed that the poor performance in Core Maths began as far back as 2006 and that the Mathematical Association realised that students did not have in-depth knowledge of English language comprehension.