The Director of Policy, Advocacy and Engagement at CDD-Ghana, Dr. Kojo Asante, is urging a sweeping national rethink of Ghana’s education culture, warning that the country’s persistent decline in WASSCE performance is a symptom of a much deeper systemic failure.
Rather than focusing only on students’ poor preparation, Dr. Asante argues that the root of the problem lies in a distorted national mindset—one that places results above integrity and has allowed examination malpractice to flourish in homes, schools, and communities.
His call follows the troubling 2025 WASSCE results, which ranked among the worst in recent years. The number of candidates scoring A1–C6 in Core Mathematics plunged dramatically from 305,132 in 2024 to 209,068 in 2025, dragging the overall pass rate to 48.73%. The majority of candidates therefore failed to meet the minimum requirement for tertiary education.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Big Issue on Saturday, December 6, Dr. Asante suggested that Ghana’s educational decline is not simply an academic challenge but a national moral crisis.
According to him, years of societal acceptance of cheating—sometimes openly facilitated by parents, school authorities, and community networks—have reshaped how young people perceive examinations and success.
He noted that some parents, eager for good grades, directly support or sponsor schemes to help their children cheat, creating a dangerous illusion that academic achievement can be bought or arranged rather than earned.
“Our problem is bigger than poor preparation; it’s a culture issue,” he stressed. “Parents, schools, and communities have normalised shortcuts. Until we confront that, WASSCE results will keep declining.”
Dr. Asante called for an urgent nationwide campaign targeting PTAs, school administrators, community groups, and local education offices to rebuild the culture of integrity in the education system.
Rather than waiting for reforms from national authorities alone, he said stakeholders must collectively commit to reversing the erosion of values that has undermined student confidence, teaching quality, and examination credibility.
He warned that if this cultural shift does not occur, Ghana’s education system will continue to produce students who depend on leaked papers and illegal support—leaving the nation with a generation of learners lacking real academic competence and problem-solving skills.
