The continued decline in students’ performance in English Language in the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) requires urgent remedial action, the Executive Director of Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has said.

Mr Asare said although performance in Social Studies, Mathematics and Integrated Science had improved compared with last year, the decline in English was worrying given the importance of literacy to students’ overall academic development.

Read Also: WASSCE 2026: English Language performance falls to 62.4% – WAEC

Speaking on Channel One TV on Saturday, September 5, he said the performance in Social Studies was particularly encouraging, with the proportion of candidates obtaining grades A1 to C6 rising to about 78 per cent in 2026.

He described the performance as the subject’s strongest in recent years.

He also pointed to improvements in Mathematics and Integrated Science, saying the gains recorded in the three subjects suggested that some interventions introduced to address learning gaps identified in the previous year might be beginning to yield results.

“However, there’s a worrying trend of further decline in performance in English, which requires remedial action,” he said.

According to figures released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the proportion of candidates obtaining A1 to C6 in English Language fell from 69.00 per cent in 2025 to 62.40 per cent in 2026.

The figure continues a downward trend recorded over the past four years, from 73.11 per cent in 2023 to 69.52 per cent in 2024, 69.00 per cent in 2025 and 62.40 per cent in 2026.

Mr Asare said the trend raised concerns about students’ foundational literacy skills and their ability to cope with the demands of secondary education.

EduWatch is therefore calling for stronger interventions at the basic-school level, including the deployment of adequate numbers of teachers, improved learning resources, effective supervision, and greater support and motivation for teachers.

2026 WASSCE results

Mr Asare’s comments follow WAEC’s release of the provisional 2026 WASSCE results.

A total of 512,862 candidates from 1,022 schools were registered for the examination, comprising 225,270 males and 287,592 females.

The figure represents an 11.07 per cent increase over the 461,736 candidates registered in 2025.

WAEC recorded 5,049 absentees, representing 0.98 per cent of the total number of registered candidates.

While English performance declined, the proportion of candidates obtaining A1 to C6 in Mathematics increased from 48.73 per cent in 2025 to 60.75 per cent in 2026.

Integrated Science also improved from 57.74 per cent to 62.08 per cent, while Social Studies recorded the biggest increase, from 55.82 per cent in 2025 to 78.04 per cent in 2026.