The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is questioning why poor performance in Ghana’s core subjects appears to shift from one subject to another each year.The Council says the recurring fluctuations in performance require a deeper examination of how students are prepared for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, Director of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi, said the Council’s analysis shows different trends across the core subjects.“I think that our analysis is always based on what our chief examiners would tell us.”Mr Kapi said English Language has recorded a steady decline in performance in recent years, while Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies have shown fluctuations.“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.”“Mathematics is fluctuating, Inter-Science is also fluctuating, and Social Studies is fluctuating as well, apart from last year, which saw a significant dip in the performance of Social Studies.”His comments come after the 2025 WASSCE results exposed serious weaknesses in core subjects.Core Mathematics recorded the sharpest decline, with only 48.73% of candidates obtaining grades A1 to C6, compared with 66.86% in 2024. More than half of the candidates failed to secure the minimum passing mark in the subject. Social Studies also fell sharply to 55.82%, while English Language and Integrated Science recorded pass rates of 69% and 57.74% respectively. Mr Kapi said the latest trends should prompt stakeholders to look beyond the immediate findings of chief examiners.“I think that basically what we need to look at is the kind of things that we would feed our children in terms of how to prepare them adequately for the examination.”He said the chief examiners’ reports had identified basic weaknesses, particularly in English Language, which students should have mastered before reaching the senior high school level.“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.”According to him, most of the skills tested in English Language are not new to students.“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 the senior high school.”“The only significant difference. Beyond that, every other thing is something they’ve seen way from primary school through JHS to the three years that they have spent in senior high school.”Mr Kapi believes a broader study is now needed to establish why students continue to struggle with core subjects despite being exposed to the relevant skills throughout their education.“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.”