Sisala East MP Mohammed Bataglia has called for a 10-year performance analysis of Ghana’s senior high schools, urging WAEC and the Education Ministry to confront longstanding concerns about the integrity of the WASSCE results.
Speaking on Joy News AM Show, the MP said any attempt to understand the sharp decline in the 2025 WASSCE performance must begin with a clear, data-driven look at how schools—especially those traditionally known for excellence—have fared over time.
“My first question is to pick the performance trend of the traditional schools we know. How are they performing in relation to this?” he asked. “We should be able to do a 10-year analysis of what is happening.”
His comments come after the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) released the provisional results for the 2025 WASSCE, which show significant declines in several core subjects. A total of 461,736 candidates sat for the exam, with more than half—220,008 candidates—failing Core Mathematics, marking the worst performance in seven years.
Bataglia argued that the worrying trends cannot be separated from years of public concern about exam malpractice.
“In the recent past, there has been hue and cry over how the integrity of the examination has been compromised,” he said, noting that WAEC’s own reports cite widespread irregularities. According to the 2025 data, about 7,000 candidates had subjects cancelled, while 185 schools were implicated in collusion and other breaches.
He questioned whether the improved monitoring WAEC introduced this year may be revealing the true level of student preparedness.
“Do we say now they are putting measures in place to make sure the results reflect how our students are preparing for exams? Is that what we are seeing?” he asked, suggesting that stricter controls might be exposing weaknesses that were previously masked.
Bataglia said a long-term analysis would help policymakers and educators identify whether the decline is a sudden anomaly or part of a deeper systemic challenge that requires urgent intervention.