WAEC Blames Poor Reading Habits, Grammar Weaknesses for Decline in 2026 WASSCE English Results
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) to poor reading habits, grammatical weaknesses and the growing influence of informal social media language.
WAEC Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, said although candidates generally performed better in the 2026 examination compared with 2025, English Language was an exception, recording a significant decline.
“The results have been an improvement on the previous year’s performance except for English Language, which saw a decline,” he said in an interview with Citi News.
English Performance Drops to 62.40%
The proportion of candidates who obtained grades A1 to C6 in English Language has steadily declined in recent years.
The pass rate fell from 73.11% in 2023 to 69.52% in 2024, 69% in 2025, and further down to 62.40% in 2026.
According to Mr Kapi, the Chief Examiner’s report identified persistent weaknesses among candidates in areas including concord, spelling, grammar, comprehension and summary writing.
Poor Reading Habits Raise Concern
WAEC also expressed concern about declining reading habits among students.
Mr Kapi noted that some candidates struggled to answer questions based on prescribed literary texts, highlighting what he described as a worrying decline in students’ engagement with reading.
The examination body is also concerned about the increasing use of informal language in candidates’ examination scripts, particularly language commonly used on social media.
“They might only use the contracted forms as if they were the standard, and that is one area that is worrying,” Kapi said.
Core Mathematics Performance Improves
In contrast, candidates recorded an improvement in Core Mathematics compared with the previous year.
According to Mr Kapi, candidates demonstrated strengths in areas such as arithmetic progression, coordinate geometry and business mathematics.
However, weaknesses remained in some areas, particularly candidates’ ability to translate word problems into mathematical statements.
In the 2026 WASSCE, 60.75% of candidates obtained grades A1 to C6 in Core Mathematics, compared with 62.40% in English Language.
The latest results have renewed concerns about students’ reading culture, grammatical competence and ability to use appropriate formal language in academic settings.
