Security Analyst, Dr. Adam Bona says the huge number of Senior High School students who failed to obtain the university admission cut-off point (C-6) in the 2021 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate is a worrying situation and a time bomb waiting to explode.

His comment follows revelations in data released Wednesday by the West African Examinations Council which showed nearly half of all candidates who sat for the examinations failed in Core Mathematics and English Language.

Those candidates will not be able to gain admission to the university and other institutions of higher learning due to their poor grades in the two core subjects.

As many as 204,831 out of the 446,352 candidates who sat for examinations this year scored above C6.

45.89 percent of them scored between D7 and F9 in mathematics whilst 45.92 percent scored the same marks for English Language.

To be admitted to any programme in any university in Ghana, a Senior High School graduate must possess at least credits (A1 – to C6) in Core Mathematics, English Language and Integrated Science (for science applicants) and Social Studies (for non-science applicants)

The situation is compounded by the recent elevation of other tertiary institutions which would have otherwise absorbed those who did not make it to the university.

The polytechnics, colleges of education, and other institutions such as the Ghana Institute of Journalism, NAFTI etc, have all been elevated in status and also have an admission cut-off point of C6, just like the universities.

Dr. Adam Bona therefore called for something urgent to be done.

“If you have almost 50 percent of all JHS graduates not being able to move on to a higher school of learning, then hopes begin to fade and they may end up anywhere.”

“It is worrying to have so many young people from the Senior High Schools idling about, who knows where they will end up? 

Only 54.11 of the 446,352 candidates obtained pass mark (A1 to C6) in mathematics whilst 54.08 passed in English.

The data also represents an 11.6 percent decline in the performance of students in Core Mathematics for 2021 as against data for 2020.

Performance in English Language also saw a 3.3 percent decline this year, compared to performance in 2020.

The situation is even more worrying for 5,374 candidates who will have to wait for months before seeing their results or may never get to know their performance.

They’re among those whose subject results (174) or entire results (1,339) have been cancelled.   

There are another 3,667 candidates whose results have been withheld whilst WAEC officials also scrutinize scripts of 194 candidates.

More students (18.8%) registered for the 2021 examinations, with 3,545 failing to turn up for the exam.

This year, there were more females (50.4%) than males (49.6%).

The data provided by WAEC shows improvements in the performance of candidates at grades A1 to C6 in Integrated Science and Social Studies this year as against 2020.