Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has hailed the recently released 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, asserting that they showcase the high calibre of students in Ghana’s Senior High School (SHS) education sector.
In a statement on Monday, December 18, 2023, Dr Bawumia addressed critics of the results, emphasizing the excellence of Ghanaian students. He presented data from the WASSCE results, highlighting outstanding achievements by SHS students on both national and international platforms.
“Our SHS students go from Keta SHS to Harvard University and excel.
“Our girls at Mamfe Senior High go for a world competition in robotics and win against teams from the USA, Germany, and South Korea.
“Our boys from Prempeh College have won robotics world competitions against global competitors many times.
“Yet when these same students excel at WASSCE, some people, for political reasons, even question the integrity of their results! Why do some always believe that it is impossible for our students or our people to be the best? It is possible!” Dr Bawumia emphasised.
He congratulated the candidates for their “excellent” performance in the 2023 exam and urged a shift in the perception that doubts the capabilities of Ghanaian students.
According to data shared by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), 73.11% of students who sat for this year’s exam obtained grades A1-C6 in all core subjects. This marks the highest performance since 2015.
“2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 are the Free SHS Graduates and the only years in the past 8 years that more than 50% of candidates obtained A1-C6 in All Core subjects,” a footnote accompanying the data shared by Dr Bawumia read.
The Free SHS policy, introduced by the government in 2017, aims to provide free education from basic to secondary level to all Ghanaian children. The policy has been praised by some as a major achievement in expanding access and quality of education, but also criticised by others as unsustainable and poorly implemented