Over 473,000 Ghanaian SHS students to sit for 2026 WASSCE with four West African peers

A total of 473,658 final year senior high school students in Ghana are set to sit the 2026 May June West African Senior School Certificate Examination for School Candidates alongside their counterparts in four other West African countries.

The examination will see Ghana rejoin Liberia, The Gambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone after five years of administering a Ghana only version introduced due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ghanaian candidates comprise 248,461 males and 225,197 females drawn from 1,020 public and private second cycle institutions. The figure represents a 2.58 percent increase compared to the 461,736 candidates who sat for the examination last year.

The Head of Public Affairs at the West African Examinations Council, John Kapi, disclosed this during a briefing on preparations for the country’s return to the regional examination format.

He indicated that the council has already begun processes toward the conduct of the examination, including the printing of scripts.

Explaining the significance of the return, he said it simply means all member countries of WAEC will once again write the examination at the same time.

“That is all, nothing has changed,” he noted, adding that it is important for the public to understand the basic structure and conduct of the examination system.