The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) blames poor reading culture and grammar for the fall in WASSCE English results, saying an improper approach to learning English, poor grammar and minimal engagement with standard English have been traced as the genesis of a decrease in pass rates for English language in the 2026 WASSCE for school candidates. Editorial Ethics & Independence
The Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi said many of the issues which characterized many scripts at the 2026 WASSCE included the inappropriate use of Pidgin and colloquial languages, sentence construction and poor usage of vocabulary and written expression.
These observations were made when speaking on radio and was monitoring by Insightghana in Accra during an interview with him on the provisional 2026 examination results held on Monday, September 7, 2026.Statistics released on the provisional WASSCE results indicate that only 62.40% of the total 512,862 candidates who took the examination passed with A1 – C6 in the subject of English language whereas pass rate in the previous year was 69.90% indicating a decrease of about 7.1% in the pass rate among candidates.
“It is the expectation of WAEC and it is the conclusion that can be drawn at this stage following the findings by the various Chief Examiners on the scripts of these candidates that the problem is indeed within this segment or these area identified”, Mr Kapi elaborated.
The Head of Public affairs at WAEC says many were common in the scripts of candidates by the Chief Examiner; they included: weak control of grammar and poor expression, mistakes in subject-verb concord and constant misspelling while “using words or spellings that appear in Pidgin even in our examination papers and a number of scripts also contained what the examiner sees as language in social media in relation to what appears to be contractions and all that” the head public affairs emphasized.
Although, while explaining and drawing conclusions Mr Kapi was quick to have warned stakeholders about treating WAEC observations as conclusive unless the council has undertaken a study.
“I have not done any study and so if anybody asks me to produce any figures or any evidence, I may not be able to provide that but what we have seen in the scripts of the candidates you can simply relate to the kind of language we have on social media,” he explained adding it does not mean we can link the decrease in WASSCE results to that factor although we could identify in many of candidates scripts and in examination scripts.
He also said student’s minimal exposure to standard English contributed to poor results because if you look at how students speak among themselves now in Ghana, most of them use and engage in Pidgin that sometimes you may find groups of students that no body of them could use standard English when we were out monitoring examinations in different examination centers across the country. Editorial Standards
Practice they say is very, very important, he affirmed saying, one cannot become good in language use without a lot of practice and since students spend much of their time communicating Pidgin, they are rarely using standard English that’s why most of them may find it difficult in using the language in tests in the learning situations at least on speaking terms in our own classroom.
Another of the challenges and the factor that many may not even believe were observed according to the WAEC official’s the falling standards in reading culture among students “because even from your upbringing at home you can know whether the child likes to read or does not like to read.
Reading leads to good performance and good use of the language,” he indicated.Mr Kapi said teachers might need to adopt new ways and strategies for examination essays if examination needs them to be in the proper form “maybe the training of teachers has something to do, we may need to revise the way some teachers are trained in the language, that’s particularly in the grammar component,” he also said.
Training he said should not limit to learning the words as a basic concept but the application should continue to be a key learning factor during all stages of learning where students must apply concepts learnt on the grammar in learning, “there must be enough and constant speaking activities on any component that has been taught. Newscard
We think maybe this has contributed to performance in general”.This falling trend also means that students may not be able to perform to expectation in other subjects because english language is always linked with overall learning that students write their answers using the language in many areas, “we think because they learn how to communicate English as is done everywhere, and so we think it affects other areas also”, he added that even in areas other than language, a bad written and oral command of English Language results in very poor answers and performance.
The challenge of how students write in tests as observed has therefore made the head of public affairs at WAEC and his colleagues at WAEC come into thinking on the nature of how some subject teachers train students for examinations.
“It also comes from what one experiences with some of the teachers, where as a result of not training teachers in this particular skill to some greater extent, it has become part of the reason why candidates in the examinations perform poorly”.
So a question has come to be raised, that WAEC observations are part of findings during examinations that cannot simply translate into statistical evidence regarding certain causes of decrease of performance for a reason the actual problem has to be identified with research and to take a concrete position with facts.
Mr Kapi revealed the Chief Examiner’s report did not previously mention this aspect of examination among students and stressed the need for a change in methodology toward effective language application in examinations that might influence students performance, “you have always been doing this before, however it seems to me as a writer that now we should add other component which must go along in the same proportion”.
It is recommended that teachers improve in the aspect of teaching of English language, Mr Kapi said “particularly those of us training them.
The training of teachers is of immense importance, especially in the teaching of grammar where our students find their greatest difficulty”.
This will call for collaboration between teachers, students and WAEC in tackling issues facing the study of the language with new learning models and resources while a study is also conducted on all aspects identified.