Afenyo-Markin Calls for Honest National Conversation on BECE and WASSCE Results

• Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin raised alarm over falling WASSCE pass rates and BECE placement failures affecting thousands of Ghanaian students
• He warned that over 200,000 young Ghanaians risk being left behind across different stages of the secondary education system
• Afenyo-Markin called on the Mahama administration to treat the education challenges as a national crisis requiring immediate and sustainable intervention

Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has called on Ghanaians and the government to engage in a frank, non-partisan discussion about the state of the country's education system, citing troubling trends in recent West African Examinations Council (WAEC) results and widespread difficulties in placing Junior High School graduates.

Speaking on the latest WASSCE outcomes, Afenyo-Markin pointed out that 183,233 students completed secondary school without earning a credit in Core Mathematics, while the English Language credit pass rate dropped to 62.40 per cent, its lowest in four years.

Both figures, he noted, fell below the levels recorded in 2024.

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BECE placement crisis adding to concerns

Beyond the examination results, the Minority Leader drew attention to the troubled placement process for BECE candidates seeking entry into Senior High Schools.

He said 54,985 candidates were initially denied automatic placement, with some children reportedly assigned to special schools in error and others turning up at their designated schools to find no space available.

Afenyo-Markin questioned what he described as a puzzling gap between placement demand and available capacity.

Government data, he said, indicated 859,828 vacancies against 623,072 candidates, with 85 private schools in the Free SHS programme also holding additional capacity.

He was direct in dismissing the self-placement portal as an adequate response to the crisis.

"A self-placement portal is not a school place; every child needs an actual seat in a functioning classroom," he said.

His overall assessment was stark: if the current challenges remain unaddressed, more than 200,000 young Ghanaians stand to be shut out of the secondary education pipeline at various stages.

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Calls for transparency, funding and TVET pathways

The Minority Leader outlined several concrete steps he believed the government should take. He asked that the final placement outcomes be published alongside a clear explanation of the criteria and pass marks used in the process.

He also called for increased funding directed at remedial teaching for students who performed poorly, and urged the establishment of clear pathways into technical and vocational education and training (TVET), apprenticeships and skills development for those who did not obtain the required WASSCE credits.

While defending the NPP's record on education access, including the introduction of Free SHS and Free TVET, Afenyo-Markin insisted the immediate priority was practical solutions for both groups of affected students.

"The 54,985 BECE candidates need real school places; the 183,233 WASSCE graduates need a second chance," he said.

He urged President John Dramani Mahama's administration to act without delay, adding that the national conversation needed to cover educational funding, teaching quality, contact hours, teacher motivation, learning materials, infrastructure and supervision.

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"This must rise above partisan excuses because the future of an entire generation is at stake," he said.

"When our children's education is in crisis, Ghana's future is in danger. The time to act is now."

WAEC cancels 8,295 WASSCE 2026 results

Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) released the provisional results of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates, with thousands of students facing consequences for examination misconduct.

An Instagram post confirmed that a total of 512,862 candidates from 1,022 schools sat the examination, made up of 225,270 males and 287,592 females.

The figure marks an 11.07 per cent rise compared to the 461,736 candidates who entered in 2025. WAEC noted that 5,049 candidates, representing 0.98 per cent of the total, were absent.

Source: YEN.com.gh