The Head of Public Affairs for the West African Examination Council (WAEC), John Kapi, has revealed that despite the extensive measures implemented by WAEC and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to curb examination malpractices in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), a significant number of cases were still recorded.
Speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Monday, December 1, 2025, Kapi disclosed that while the Council managed to halt numerous malpractices during the examination, several instances were also detected, resulting in the cancellation of subject results for some students and entire results for others.
He emphasised that the statistics of irregularities remain alarmingly high, despite enhanced measures to prevent malpractices.
“If you look at the pictures that we brought out this year, we still had quite a number of irregularities. We have had to cancel the entire results of a number of candidates, about 653, higher than last year’s figure.
“We also had subject results, about 6,295 so clearly, there was also a high number and then we have a lot of scripts that we are scrutinising in the office at the moment,” he stated.
He indicated that the number of candidates who passed could still increase if scripts currently under investigation are cleared of any wrongdoing.
“If you look at the statistics that we brought out, we have clearly indicated that these are statistics of published results of the core subjects. It means that there is a possibility that the pass rate could go up because of maybe some of the people, whom after our investigation, may be found not culpable. Much as we were able to send out a lot of people, we still recorded a number of irregularities,” he explained.
The comments follow the mass failures in some core subjects, particularly Core Mathematics and Social Studies, after the release of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
According to a press statement announcing the release of the provisional results by WAEC on Saturday, November 29, 2025, nearly one of every four candidates failed in Core Mathematics and Social Studies.
The development has sparked national conversation since, with a former Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, saying the outcome is as a result of poor management of the schools by the GES.
Also, a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei, has cautioned the GES about the punitive measures in the classrooms emanating from the top.
He believes headmasters should be given the power to enforce discipline in the schools, adding that until the “extra classes” fees paid by students are halted, the results are going to be worse.
Scrap ‘extra classes’ fees to improve WASSCE performance – Prof. Adei
