Ghana's education system needs structured formula to improve WASSCE results — Dr Osei Adutwum
Former Education Minister Dr.Yaw Osei Adutwum has attributed the decline in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) performance to the absence of a structured learning formula in the education system.
His comments come after widespread concern over the latest Ghana-only WASSCE results, which showed a significant drop in performance, particularly in Core Mathematics.
Out of 461,736 candidates who sat the examination, more than half scored between D7 and F9 in Core Mathematics.
Only 48.73 per cent obtained grades A1 to C6, compared to 66.86 per cent in 2024, marking the worst performance in about eight years.
English Language, Social Studies and Integrated Science also recorded declines.
Speaking on Accra-based JoyNews’ Career Trail, Dr. Osei Adutwum said consistent application of a structured method is key to improving academic outcomes.
“That for you to succeed in everything… you need to have a formula. When you apply the formula and you don't get 100%, you may get 90, you may get 80, but things go wrong when you don't have a formula,” he said.
The Bosomtwe MP explained that during his tenure as Education Minister, data-driven evaluation was central to improving teaching and learning outcomes.
“At the end of the year, when the results come out, we do analysis of it by statisticians to see the most difficult questions… once we get that, we bring in examiners to come and teach the teachers so that in the future, when a question like that comes, the children will be able to solve them,” he added.
The educationist stressed that strengthening feedback systems between exam bodies, teachers and policymakers is essential to reversing declining performance trends.
He, however, cautioned against the politicisation of the results and encouraged students who may not have the opportunity to resit their papers to consider venturing into entrepreneurship.