WASSCE: 131,760 Students cannot make it to University

It is important to note that the cut-off point for admission requirements for universities in the country is grade C6 and students desirous of University education need A1 to C6 in three core subjects.

According to Provisional results released by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), Ghana, the number of candidates who failed to obtain grades A1 to C6 in the four core subjects is as follows: English – 131,760, Mathematics – 164,094, Integrated Science – 161,544 and Social Studies – 136,873.

Mathematics and English better than 2017

Mathematics and English Language recorded 9.9% and 0.87% increase respectively in A1-C6 grades over 2016 figures.
Integrated Science and Social Studies passes drop 

On the other hand, Integrated Science and Social Studies experienced decline in performance, recording 4.82% and 2.68% drop respectively in A1-C6 grades compared to 2016 results.

Mathematics – 42.73% obtained A1-C6
Based on the provisional results, the performance in Mathematics (A1-C6) showed a marked improvement over that of 2016 moving from 32.83% in 2016 to 42.73% in 2017, an increase of 9.9%.

English Language -53.19% obtained A1-C6
English Language recorded a slight improvement of 0.87% as the A1-C6 went up from 53.19% in 2016 to 54.06% in 2017.

Integrated Science – 43.66% obtained A1-C6 
On the contrary, Integrated Science recorded a 4.82% drop from the 2016 performance of 48.48% in 2016 to 43.66% 2017.

Social Studies – 54.93% obtained A1-C6
Similarly, there was a 2.68% drop in the performance in Social Studies from 54.93% 2017 to 52.25% in 2017.
English results breakdown 

For English Language, 155,077, representing 54.06%, obtained A1-C6; 73,409, which represents 25.59%, obtained D7-E8 and 58,351 (20.35%) had F9.

Mathematics results breakdown
The breakdown for Mathematics is 122,450 (42.73%) obtained A1-C6; 106,024 (37%) obtained D7-E8 while 58,070 (20.27%) had F9.

For Integrated Science, the breakdown is: 125,204 (43.66%) obtained A1-C6; 84,851 (29.59%) obtained D7-E8 while 76,693 (26.75%) had F9.

Social Studies results breakdown
For Social Studies, the breakdown is: 149,806 (52.25%) obtained A1-C6; 69,795 (24.35%) obtained D7-E8, while 67,078 (23.40%) had F9.

289,210 Candidates sat 2017 WASSCE
A total of 289,210 candidates entered for the examination and this figure is 5.45% higher than the 2016 number of 274,262. 

Gender breakdown
The 2017 entry figure was made up of 147,591(51%) males and 141,619 (49%) females. 
916 Schools took part in 2017 WASSCE

The examination was conducted for 916 participating schools.
 
1,732 Candidates absent
A total of 1,732 (0.60%) of the candidates, who registered, were absent from the examination.

Results of 185 schools withheld 
The entire results of candidates from 185 schools have been withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into various cases of examination malpractices detected during and after the conduct of the examination. 

31 Schools caught cheating
This includes results of candidates from 31 schools who were detected by the Item Differentia Profile (IDP) software to have cheated in objective tests.

The withheld results of candidates will be cancelled if found culpable or released if otherwise.
“The Council will dispatch the results to the schools and candidates are advised to contact their heads of school for their results,” a statement signed by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjo, the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, said.

Meanwhile, the Council has posted the results online and candidates, who so desire, may access their results at the Council’s website.

“The Council is alerting members of the public, especially candidates, to be wary of impostors who promise to change examination results for a fee. Candidates are to note that all WAEC results are well secured and can be authenticated. Persons with forged results will be exposed,” the statement said.