The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has attributed the decline in candidates’ performance in English Language in the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) partly to persistent weaknesses in grammar, poor reading habits and the influence of informal language.

Head of Public Affairs at WAEC Ghana, John Kapi, said the pass rate in English Language fell from 69% in 2025 to 62.40% in 2026.

Speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show on Monday, September 7, during a discussion on the provisional 2026 WASSCE results, Mr Kapi said the Chief Examiner’s report identified poor control of grammar, weak expression, concord errors and spelling mistakes among the major challenges.

“When you look at the Chief Examiner's report, it talks about the candidates' poor control of grammar. They also have an issue with expression,” he said.

“The concord is always a problem, and their spelling, simple spelling errors occur in a lot of their writing,” he added.

Poor comprehension and reading culture

Mr Kapi also said many candidates struggled to understand and analyse passages in the English Language paper.

“I think then also the texts that they are supposed to read and analyse, most of them do not have a grasp of the texts and so they are unable to do a proper analysis of the text that they are supposed to have read,” he said.

He said a declining reading culture could be contributing to the problem, noting that regular reading helps students develop vocabulary, sentence structure and comprehension skills.

“There’s also this lack of reading culture. See, reading is one of the major areas where you can pick up language, whether you like it or not,” Mr Kapi said.

“We build our vocabulary, we build our sentence structure, we're able to even gather a lot more information, knowledge that we add to whatever we know,” he added.

Social media, Pidgin influence

Mr Kapi stopped short of directly blaming social media for the decline, stressing that WAEC had not conducted a study to establish such a link.

“I don't have evidence to support that,” he said.

He nevertheless said examiners had observed forms of informal language associated with social media appearing in candidates’ scripts.

“What I'm saying is that these things that we find in the social media space also find their way into the candidates' writings,” he said.

He cited contracted forms and other expressions commonly used on platforms such as WhatsApp and SMS as examples of language that sometimes find their way into formal examination scripts.

Mr Kapi also identified the widespread use of Pidgin English as a challenge, particularly where students have limited exposure to standard English in their everyday interactions.

“Generally, English Language has been a problem over the years, and one of the things that we've had a problem with is the use of Pidgin,” he said.

“One thing about language is the use of it. The more you use it, the more proficient you become in it,” he added.

Mr Kapi said improving students’ proficiency in English required a shared effort between teachers, students and the wider learning environment.

He said teachers could provide instruction, but students must also consistently practise and use standard English to strengthen their proficiency.