Mahama Defends WASSCE Results …Says Era Of Cheating Is Over

President John Dramani Mahama has delivered an uncompromising defence of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, declaring that the era when students expected leaked questions and intimidated disciplined teachers “must remain behind us.”

Speaking at a Citizens’ Engagement in Wa on Saturday, at the climax of his two-day “Resetting Ghana” Tour of the Upper West Region, the President said he would not be drawn into a statistical debate over the results, which have generated intense public discussion since their release earlier this month.

“I do not wish to debate the statistics today because the figures are available for everyone to examine,” President Mahama told the gathering of traditional leaders, educators, and community members.

The President expressed satisfaction that the results reflected what he described as the genuine performance of students, attributing the development partly to improved invigilation and a reduction in organised examination malpractice.

“The era when students felt entitled to leaked answers and attacked teachers who enforced discipline must remain behind us,” he said, in some of his strongest remarks on the subject to date.

“Our children must succeed because they have learned, and our teachers must teach with integrity.”

The President’s comments come against the backdrop of provisional WASSCE results released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on September 4, which showed mixed outcomes across the four core subjects and a significant crackdown on examination irregularities.

According to WAEC figures, a total of 512,862 candidates from 1,022 schools sat the examination, an 11.07 per cent increase over the 461,736 candidates recorded in 2025. Social Studies recorded the strongest performance, with 78.04 per cent of candidates obtaining grades between A1 and C6, a marked improvement from 55.82 per cent in 2025. Core Mathematics also recovered, climbing from 48.73 per cent to 60.75 per cent, while Integrated Science improved to 62.08 per cent.

English Language, however, continued its three-year decline, falling from 69.00 per cent in 2025 to 62.40 per cent in 2026.

The results also revealed a robust enforcement regime. WAEC cancelled the subject results of 7,434 candidates found with foreign materials and the entire results of 861 candidates caught with mobile phones during the examination. A further 169 schools had their subject results withheld over alleged collusion, pending investigations expected to conclude by October 30.

 

Double-Track System to End by 2027

At the same engagement, President Mahama reiterated his administration’s commitment to phase out the double-track system in senior high schools by the end of 2027, assuring that no school in Ghana should still be operating the alternating schedule by that deadline.

“Everybody goes to school at the same time, studies and closes at the same time,” the President said, explaining that the change would increase contact hours between teachers and learners and improve educational outcomes.

He disclosed that the government had secured a $300 million facility from the World Bank to support the elimination of the double-track system, a financing package formally approved by the Bank’s Executive Board on June 16, 2026. The project—known as the Secondary Education Transformation for Access, Relevance, and Results for Jobs (STARR-J)—is designed to expand infrastructure, rehabilitate schools, and improve instructional quality across nearly 1,000 public secondary schools.

 

The President also addressed longstanding challenges in the Free Senior High School programme, which he said his administration inherited without a dedicated funding source.

“As a result, schools depended on delayed budget releases every year. Headmasters constantly complained about inadequate funding and shortages of food,” he said.

He noted that some schools had been forced to feed students with whatever food items were available because supplies arrived irregularly.

“Today, we have established dedicated funding for Senior High Schools. We have also created dedicated financing for student feeding, and complaints from headmasters have reduced considerably,” President Mahama said.