More than half a million final-year senior high school students across Ghana will begin writing the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates on Tuesday, marking the country’s return to the unified regional examination system after five years.
The examination officially starts with Oral English and will see 509,862 candidates sit for the exams nationwide, according to figures released by the West African Examinations Council.
The candidates include 225,274 males and 284,588 females from schools across the country.
This year’s examination marks a major shift as Ghana rejoins other West African countries including Liberia, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone in writing the standard regional examination.
Ghana had operated its own version of the WASSCE since 2021 after disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced changes to the examination calendar across the sub-region.
Data from WAEC shows that candidates this year are drawn from 1,020 public and private second-cycle institutions nationwide.
The total number of candidates represents a 2.58 percent increase compared to the 461,736 students who sat for the examination last year.
Education stakeholders say Ghana’s return to the regional examination timetable restores uniformity in assessment standards across West Africa and strengthens the credibility of the certificate within the sub-region.
The exams are expected to continue in the coming weeks under strict supervision at designated centres nationwide.
