Educationist and founder of the GATE Foundation, Anis Haffar has raised concerns about the relevance of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Reacting to the poor performance of students in the 2024 provisional WASSCE results during an exclusive interview on Bullet TV, Mr. Haffer argued that if WAEC remains the benchmark for assessment, “students will continue to fail.”
He described WAEC as an offshoot of the Cambridge program that has failed to evolve beyond “repetition, lower-order thinking skills, and rote memorization for exams.”
“At this point in time, is WAEC fit for purpose?” he asked pointedly.
Mr. Haffer further criticized the current education regime, saying it lacks the capacity to predict student performance and intervene effectively to correct learning outcomes in real time.
Meanwhile, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has also linked the alarming failure rate in Core Mathematics during the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to recurring weaknesses in seven critical skill areas. Provisional results released by WAEC reveal a deepening crisis: more than half of the candidates – 220,008 out of 461,736, failed Core Mathematics. This marks the worst performance in the subject in seven years and reflects an almost 18‑percentage‑point drop in pass rates (A1 to C6) compared to the previous year.
The seven areas of concern identified by examiners include:
1. Representing mathematical information in diagrams
2. Solving global math-related problems
3. Constructing cumulative frequency tables
4. Making deductions from real-life problems
5. Applying simple interest concepts
6. Translating word problems into mathematical expressions
7. Interpreting results from cumulative frequency data
Mr. John Kapi, WAEC’s Head of Public Relations, explained in an interview on Accra based Joy FM that these deficiencies fall squarely within the approved syllabus and test blueprint. He stressed that the gaps highlight urgent intervention points for schools.
“These are not topics outside the syllabus,” Mr. Kapi noted. “They are areas where chief examiners consistently observe weaknesses in candidates’ performance.”
WAEC has promised to release a more detailed analysis and recommendations to guide educators and policymakers as preparations begin for the next examination cycle.
