Education think tank, Africa Education Watch (AEW), maintains that the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) result is not an improvement on last year’s performance.

The results of the first batch of students who graduated under the Free Senior High School programme introduced by the Akufo-Addo-led administration has become the subject of intense political debate since its release.

A breakdown of the WASSCE results published by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) shows a comparative improvement in Core Math and English subjects from 2019's performance.

Executive Director for Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, however, asserts that although commendable, the improvement is largely as a result of what he describes as "inconveniences and impreparations".

“It must be said that the performance in English this year is worthy of commendation. We performed creditably in English and quite insignificantly but also positively in Maths. One should appreciate the fact that there were inconveniences and impreparations towards the 2020 one, as compared to 2019.

“The second is the widespread leakage of examination papers especially in Core Maths, which we alleged, provided evidence and which WAEC also admitted to. And so leakages will have enhanced the chances of scoring higher in the examination,” he said.

Mr. Asare was speaking to Joy News' Daniel Dadzie on Monday, November 16.

A total of 375, 763 candidates sat the WASSCE exams in 2020, which is calculated to be 8.6% higher than in 2019. As per WAEC's provisional results, there is an improvement in the performance of candidates in grades A1 to C6 in English Language and Core Mathematics.

Integrated Science and Social Studies however recorded a decline in performance in grades A1 to C6 in 2020.