Poor Performance of WASSCE 2025: A Symptom of a Deeper Crisis in Ghana’s Education System.
The poor performance recorded in the 2025 WASSCE examinations should not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the steady decline in the treatment of teachers in Ghana. What we are witnessing today is not merely an examination failure; it is the cumulative result of decades of neglect, broken promises and misplaced priorities within the education sector.
From the 1980s to date, Ghanaian teachers have suffered persistent poor remuneration and deteriorating working conditions. While teachers are repeatedly described as the backbone of national development, this recognition has rarely translated into fair wages, adequate incentives, or professional respect. Salaries have remained uncompetitive, allowances irregular and promotions painfully slow. In many cases, teachers work under overcrowded classrooms, insufficient teaching materials and crumbling infrastructure, yet are still expected to produce world-class results.
Not surprisingly, many experienced and highly trained teachers are leaving the country. They are migrating to jurisdictions where their skills are respected, their welfare protected and their remuneration reflective of their professional value. Countries within Africa and beyond now benefit from Ghana’s teaching expertise, while local schools are left with overstretched and demoralized staff or inexperienced replacements. This brain drain has serious consequences for quality teaching and student outcomes.
Political leaders often respond with a familiar refrain: “There are too many teachers; we cannot do much for all of them.” This argument is not only unfair but dangerous. The number of teachers in the system should be seen as an investment opportunity, not a burden. A country that refuses to properly resource its educators is effectively choosing short-term savings over long-term national development.
Adding to the frustration is the visible contradiction in leadership behavior. Many political leaders and high-ranking public officials do not entrust their own children to the very public schools their policies oversee. Instead, they send them to British curriculum schools, international schools or institutions outside Ghana altogether. This practice sends a damaging message: that confidence in the local education system is selective and conditional. When leaders do not believe enough in the public system to patronize it themselves, it weakens public trust and undermines accountability.
The truth must be stated plainly: if teachers are poorly paid, under-resourced, and continuously demoralized, examination results will continue to deteriorate. No amount of curriculum reforms, supervision or student discipline can compensate for a neglected and unmotivated teacher workforce. Education systems do not rise above the quality and welfare of their teachers.
If urgent steps are not taken to improve teacher remuneration, provide consistent resources, and restore dignity to the profession, the situation will only grow worse. Poor WASSCE performance today is a warning sign. Tomorrow, it could translate into a workforce ill-prepared for national development, increased inequality and deeper social challenges.
The message to political leaders and society is clear: investing seriously in teachers is not optional, it is essential. Until the teacher is respected, adequately paid, and properly resourced, Ghana’s education outcomes will continue to decline, regardless of the promises made or the reforms announced.
Beyond policies, statistics and public statements lies a quiet pain that many people never see. As a teacher, I have witnessed moments that words can barely describe. I have seen colleague teachers both men and women who have given over twenty years of their lives to the classroom break down in silence. Not because they failed, but because reality confronted them in the most painful way.
Imagine teaching a child, guiding them through adolescence, correcting their mistakes, encouraging them when they nearly gave up and watching them grow into a professional. Then imagine meeting that same student shortly after national service and realizing that, financially, they now earn twice or even more than you do. For many teachers, that moment cuts deep. Not out of jealousy, but out of heartbreak. It forces a painful question: What exactly is the value of a teacher in this society?
These teachers are not bitter about their students’ success; they are very proud. Their tears are not born from envy, but from a sense of abandonment. They cry quietly because, after decades of sacrifice, they cannot afford a decent life, cannot plan confidently for retirement and still struggle to meet basic needs. They cry because the nation they helped build no longer seems to see them.
Every day, teachers walk into classrooms carrying invisible burdens, financial stress, unmet obligations, fading hope, yet they stand before students and teach with commitment and love. They smile through the pain, mark scripts late into the night and prepare lessons with the same seriousness demanded of them. But inside, many are tired; emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
This is the human face of the education crisis. When a teacher feels humiliated by survival, when experience is rewarded with stagnation and when sacrifice is met with silence, the damage goes far beyond examination results. It affects morale, passion and ultimately the quality of education itself.
Another disturbing factor worsening WASSCE performance is the gradual corruption of external examinations, often linked to teacher desperation rather than moral failure alone. When teachers are poorly paid and burdened with debts, external exams begin to appear as rare opportunities to earn something small just to survive. This reality, though uncomfortable, must be confronted honestly.
At the basic school level, some teachers unfortunately assist pupils during examinations, a practice that slowly travels up the educational ladder to the secondary level. By the time students face WASSCE, many have already been conditioned to depend on shortcuts rather than genuine learning. The tragedy is that integrity has been reduced to a painfully cheap price. It may shock the public to know that students sometimes contribute as little as 50 to 100 Ghana cedis for such practices.
As a teacher, seeing this breaks my heart. I often ask myself, what can I do? Especially when parents, community members and other stakeholders silently endorse or actively participate in these acts. When society itself becomes complicit, it is unjust to place the entire blame on teachers alone. One is left to ask an important question: Would a teacher who is well remunerated, respected and secure, risk their career and reputation for such a small amount?
Ironically, these practices contribute directly to poor WASSCE outcomes. Artificial success at the lower levels produces weak academic foundations. When students eventually face examinations they cannot manipulate, reality exposes the deficiencies. Thus, short-term gains give birth to long-term failure.
The poor performance of WASSCE 2025 is therefore not a mystery, it is a warning. It reflects a broken relationship between the nation and its educators. Until teachers are adequately paid, properly resourced and treated with dignity, no educational reform will yield sustainable results.
If Ghana truly desires improved examination outcomes and a strong educational foundation, it must begin with investing in teachers, not just in words, but in real, measurable actions. The silence of suffering teachers today may well become the loud consequences of national neglect tomorrow.
Until Ghana is willing to confront this uncomfortable truth and restore dignity to the teaching profession through fair remuneration, proper resourcing and genuine respect, the story will not change. The poor WASSCE performance is not just an academic issue, it is the echo of broken spirits in classrooms across the country.
If we fail to listen now, the silence of today’s teachers may soon become the loud consequences of tomorrow’s neglect.
Source: Torgbor Obodai (TUTOR), B. ED, PGDBA, MBA, LLB
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