he Head of Public Relations at the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), John Kapi, has revealed major weaknesses in candidates’ performance in the 2025 WASSCE, particularly in Core Mathematics and Social Studies, according to assessments by the Chief Examiners.
His explanations follow a significant dip in overall results and a spike in examination irregularities.
This year’s WASSCE recorded a marked decline, with Core Mathematics suffering the sharpest drop in performance. A1–C6 passes fell from 305,132 in 2024 to 209,068 in 2025—representing a decline of more than 96,000 passes. With a pass rate of just 48.73%, more than half of the candidates failed to secure the grades required for tertiary education.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View with Bernard Avle on Monday, December 1, Mr. Kapi said chief examiners reported that the 2025 Core Mathematics paper matched the standard of the previous year, indicating that the difficulty stemmed from candidate weaknesses rather than exam quality.
He outlined the seven main weaknesses identified in Core Mathematics:
- Difficulty representing mathematical information in diagrams
- Inability to solve global mathematics-related problems
- Poor construction of cumulative frequency tables
- Weakness in making deductions from real-life situations
- Challenges solving simple interest applications
- Inability to translate word problems into mathematical expressions
- Difficulty interpreting results from cumulative frequency data
For Social Studies, Mr. Kapi said chief examiners also identified gaps in candidates’ understanding and analytical skills. The key weaknesses included:
- Inability to write about government policies designed to improve citizens’ lives
- Failure to explain how costly funerals negatively affect national development
- Weak discussions on the forms of cooperation between Ghana and United Nations agencies
