The University of Ghana (UG) Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof Gordon Awandare, has said the institution’s admission requirements and cut-offs remain firm despite the poor performance of many candidates in the 2025 WASSCE.
According to Prof Awandare, the University of Ghana has already received WAEC results from students who purchased awaiting results forms.
He urged students who will not meet the cut-off points to consider re-sitting the WASSCE, adding that the admission requirements are firm to uphold academic standards.
Speaking to Citi News on Tuesday, December 2, UG’s Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof. Gordon Awandare, stated, “At the University of Ghana, every year, we have many more students making the cut off but not getting the opportunity to be admitted because of the limited number of spaces.
“So, it is not likely that we will need to move the cut-off to get sufficient numbers for each programme. We will advise that if they really want to come to Legon, they should re-sit some of the papers and improve their aggregates and try again,” he stated.
His comments follow the 2025 WASSCE result being released by WAEC, which revealed 220,008 out of 461,736 failed Core Mathematics, marking the worst performance in the subject in seven years.
Also, “only 48.73% of candidates attained grades A1 to C6 in 2025. This represents a massive collapse from the 66.86% achieved in 2024. A total of 209,068 candidates passed with A1-C6, but 114,872 candidates (26.77%) failed the subject outright with an F9 grade.
Additionally, 131,097 students (30.27%) failed English Language, 161,606 students (39.87%) failed Integrated Science, and 196727 students (44%) failed Social Studies.
A total of 1,021 schools registered candidates for the examination, representing a slight 0.24% increase over 2024, while 5,821 candidates (1.26%) were absent”.
Meanwhile, Prof Stephen Adei, a renowned educationist, has said stricter invigilation prevented cheating that could have inflated scores in the 2025 WASSCE results.
The renowned educationist asserted that the decline exposed the long-standing weaknesses in Ghana’s education system.
According to him, stronger exam supervision by WAEC has limited the extensive cheating that often increases results.
Prof Adei further noted that Ghana’s results depend not so much on the students’ performance, but also on how many people get away with murder.
Speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show, Prof Adei detailed, “The reality could be that invigilation and vigilance were better during the last examination, because examination malpractice is so widespread that a lot of them, even the passes we see, so it depends whether WAEC has been a bit more vigilant and put in a better system.”
“The decline may not be actually worse performance, but much better supervision of the examination,” he added.
The professor added, “First of all, this is not something that is happening today. It has been with us for a long time. Some of us have been talking about it after the examination. Everybody thought we heard it, and it goes quiet.”
“The main source of the problem happens at the basic school level before the secondary school. The foundation we have in the public schools is what the World Bank describes as ‘schooling without learning’.”
“Generally, we don’t have the right material for about half of them. It’s almost like a wholesale promotion. Unless we tackle a fundamental issue of almost producing illiterate people at the basic level, in fact, these results will be the best we can hope for.”