62.40% and Falling: What the 2026 WASSCE Results Reveal About Ghana’s English Language Crisis

The 2026 WASSCE results should not be reduced to a discussion about whether performance has improved or declined. The figures point to a deeper concern about how Ghana is teaching English, developing literacy and preparing children to communicate effectively from the earliest years of schooling.

The most important figure is 62.40 percent. That is the proportion of candidates who obtained A1 to C6 in English Language in the 2026 WASSCE. In 2025, the figure was 69.00 percent. In 2024, it was 69.52 percent, and in 2023, 73.11 percent. In three years, the proportion has fallen by more than ten percentage points. WAEC itself describes English as the only core subject that recorded a progressive decline over the four year period.

The contrast with the other core subjects makes the situation even more difficult to dismiss as a general examination problem. Core Mathematics moved from 48.73 percent in 2025 to 60.75 percent in 2026. Integrated Science improved from 57.74 percent to 62.08 percent, while Social Studies increased significantly from 55.82 percent to 78.04 percent. English, however, moved in the opposite direction. That should concern every stakeholder in education.

There is another issue that deserves serious attention. Increasingly, teachers complain about students carrying the language habits of social media into formal writing. Abbreviations, phonetic spellings, informal expressions and digital slang may be normal in WhatsApp conversations, TikTok comments and other online spaces, but they cannot replace standard written English in an examination script. However, blaming social media would be too convenient.

A student with a strong foundation in reading, vocabulary, comprehension and written expression should be able to distinguish between the language used with friends online and the language required in an academic setting. The more fundamental question is therefore this: Are we building that foundation strongly enough before children reach senior high school? This takes us directly to the primary school and JHS classroom.

Ghana has understood the importance of early literacy for years. The National Literacy Acceleration Programme, NALAP, was introduced as a bilingual and biliteracy approach designed to develop literacy in Ghanaian languages while progressively developing English literacy. Its framework placed emphasis on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. By Primary 3, the programme was designed to give Ghanaian language and English equal instructional time.

The idea was not to weaken English. It was to build the literacy foundation necessary for children to become competent readers and writers. Yet studies on NALAP implementation identified important challenges. A 2019 study in the Upper West Region found that NALAP was being implemented only to some extent and that instructional materials were insufficient in some schools or unavailable altogether. It recommended stronger teacher training and improved provision of teaching and learning materials. This is where Ghana must be honest with itself.

We cannot expect a student who struggled to develop reading fluency in primary school, struggled with comprehension in JHS and had limited exposure to quality reading materials to suddenly become an excellent academic writer at SHS. The WASSCE is the end of the pipeline. English language development begins much earlier.

If we are serious about reversing the decline, we must move beyond preparing students for examination questions. Primary and JHS schools must deliberately develop reading culture, vocabulary, comprehension, grammar and writing. Teachers must have the training and materials required to teach these skills effectively. Schools must identify children who are falling behind early and intervene before those weaknesses become entrenched.

We must also recognise that literacy is not simply the ability to pronounce words. A student can read a passage aloud and still fail to understand it. A student can speak English reasonably well and still struggle to organise ideas in writing. A student can communicate comfortably on social media and still lack the vocabulary and grammatical control required for formal academic writing.

These are different skills, and our education system must deliberately develop all of them. The 2026 results also remind us that examination integrity remains important. WAEC cancelled the entire results of 861 candidates for possessing mobile phones in examination halls and cancelled subject results for 7,434 candidates for bringing foreign materials into examination halls. Results involving hundreds of other candidates and schools were also withheld over suspected irregularities. 

This makes the quality of the actual learning even more important. We cannot build an education system around examination shortcuts and then complain when students struggle when those shortcuts disappear. CREP Africa therefore believes that the decline in English performance should trigger a national literacy audit from KG through JHS.

We should examine what pupils can actually read, understand and write at each stage of basic education. We should examine whether teachers are adequately prepared to teach literacy. We should assess the availability of reading materials. We should revisit the lessons from NALAP and determine what worked, what was lost during implementation and what can be strengthened under the current curriculum. Most importantly, we should stop waiting for WAEC to tell us that there is a problem.

If a child is not reading well in Primary 3, that is already an education warning. If the problem persists in JHS, it becomes a national concern. By WASSCE, it is already an expensive consequence of years of missed intervention. The 2026 WASSCE English figure of 62.40 percent is therefore more than an examination statistic. It is a signal. Ghana must listen to the data, go back to the foundation and fix the problem where it begins.

Better WASSCE English results will not come from teaching students more examination tricks. They will come from building stronger readers, writers and thinkers from the earliest years of schooling.