The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is calling for further research into the persistent poor performance of students in English Language at the senior high school level.

The Council says a deeper study is needed to establish why candidates continue to struggle with the subject despite being exposed to most of its requirements from the basic level.

Director of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi, made the call on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday.

His comments come after the release of the latest West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, which showed a sharp decline in English Language performance.

The latest results indicate that English has now emerged as the weakest among the core subjects.

Mr Kapi said WAEC’s analysis of candidate performance shows a steady decline in English Language results between 2023 and 2026.

“I think that our analysis is always based on what our chief examiners would tell us. For example, when we look at the performance of candidates in English language over the period, the analysis I have is from 2023 to 2026, and you realise that there has been a steady decline in the performance of candidates in English language.”

He said the situation is different for the other core subjects, whose performance has fluctuated over the period.

“Mathematics is fluctuating, Inter-Science is also fluctuating, and Social Studies is fluctuating as well, apart from last year that saw a significant dip in the performance of Social Studies.”

John Kapi noted that Social Studies has traditionally been among the strongest-performing core subjects in the examination.

“It has always been one of the highest-performing core subjects in the WASSCE, as we have seen it indicated.”

According to him, the persistent challenges in English Language raise questions about how students are prepared for the examination.

“I think that basically what we need to look at is the kind of things that we would feed our children with in terms of how to prepare them adequately for the examination.”

Mr Kapi said reports from WAEC’s chief examiners point to weaknesses in areas students should have mastered before reaching senior high school.

“When we look at the chief examiners' report, some of the basic things that they mention as the reason for the failure rate, especially in English language, are things that you expect the children would have mastered from the basic level through to the senior high school level.”

He said the summary passage is the only major component that candidates encounter for the first time at senior high school.

“The only technical thing that is different in terms of the way they are tested is the summary passage, which is not something that they come across until they get to senior high school.”

“That is the only significant difference. Beyond that, every other thing is something they’ve seen from primary school through JHS to the three years that they have spent in senior high school.”

John Kapi said WAEC therefore believes further investigation is required to understand the reasons behind the declining performance.

“So, we probably need to do a further study beyond the report that the chief examiners give us and see why candidates are, you know, not performing in these subjects in the senior high school.”