Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has commended the general results of students who took part in the 2021 WASSCE exams, by describing it as a sign of “good progress”.
According to him, there has been improvement in some subjects although the general performance of the WASSCE students is no different from previous years, particularly for subject such as English, Integrated Science and mathematics which have been “fluctuating” over the past three years. Mr Asare explained that there are underlying “issues” with maths and English due to its volatile trends in terms of result outcomes.
“If you look at the performance in totality, it’s a repeat of last year’s. At least 50% of students having between A and C6 in the four core subjects (Maths, English, Integrated Science and Social Studies), which is a sign of good progress, even though we are having a decline in two of the subjects and then also improvements in one…”
Mr Kofi Asare
His comments follow the official release of the provisional results of candidates for the 2021 WASSCE exams by West African Examinations Council (WAEC), on December 8, 2021.
Commenting on the causes of failure in maths and science, Mr Asare noted that it is as a result of the way maths is taught at the basic level. Maths, he explained, is taught to be a “mystical subject” as teachers haven’t really been able to “unmask or demystify” it. He revealed that the subject is still perceived by many students at the basic level as a difficult subject and as such a different outcome shouldn’t be expected when these students make it to the secondary level.
“If we are able to demystify the teaching of maths [and] change the approach maths teachers adapt in teaching mathematics and make it more participatory and learner-friendly, I’m sure people will be more interested in doing maths and learning maths as much as the other subjects”.
Mr Kofi Asare
Touching on English, Mr Asare indicated that currently, less than 20% of students who are completing primary six have proficiency in English. The biggest challenge, he revealed, in Ghana’s education sector is actually literacy and numeracy rates, especially for English.
“So, I won’t say that the pass rate in English is actually an improvement on what we normally observed in the national or piloted standardized test at the basic level. But we have a lot of work to do in enhancing literacy”.
Mr Kofi Asare
The EduWatch Executive Director intimated that government has to roll out some quality interventions in the area of teaching and learning English and mathematics with the aim of trying to build foundational skills in the two subjects. He intimated that if these interventions are implemented thoroughly, then there is bound to be more enthusiasm, interest and quality learning outcomes in maths and English.
WAEC withholds results of 3, 667 WASSCE students
Following the release of the provisional results, the Council’s Head of Public Affairs, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, revealed that the entire results of some 3,667 students have been withheld. She intimated that the scripts of candidates from 194 schools in certain subjects have also been withheld and are being scrutinised.
Contained in a statement, she asserted that the move is to facilitate the investigation into various cases of examination malpractice detected during and after some papers.
“The Entire Results of 3,667 candidates have been withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into various cases of examination malpractice detected during and after the conduct of the examination”.
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe
For those whose results have been published, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe stated that the Council will provide login details to Heads of schools to enable them to print their candidates’ results. She stressed that the results have been made available online, as such, “candidates who so desire, may access their results at the Council’s website or dial the short code *944#”.
She, however, warned candidates against using dubious means to change their grades.
“All WAEC results are secured and can be authenticated. Institutions are, therefore, urged always to verify results presented to them to expose incidents of forgery”.
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe
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