NPP manifesto launch: No evidence to support Napo’s claim of 68% A1 pass rate in 2020 WASSCE

On August 18, 2024, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) unveiled its manifesto ahead of the upcoming general election, scheduled for December 7, 2024.

During the launch, the party’s running mate and former Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as Napo, shared what he considered major achievements of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration in the education and energy sectors.

According to the running mate, who had served both as a Minister of Education and Minister of Energy, the first batch of Free SHS beneficiaries recorded 68% of candidates who sat for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) exam scored A1 in eight subjects, which he described as the highest in West Africa and the best Ghana has ever seen.

He made this claim while praising President Akufo-Addo for implementing the Free SHS policy, emphasizing that it has created equal opportunities for students and led to significant improvements in both the education sector and Ghana’s performance in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Fact-Check Ghana has verified the claim and presents the details below.

Claim: “The first batch of free SHS [beneficiaries], stayed home for 5 months because of COVID, and when they came back to school, and they sat for their WASSCE,[they produced] the best result ever Ghana has had, 68% of all A1 eight, aggregate A1, eight subjects, happened from that group [sic], the whole for West Africa, Ghana got 68% of A1s eight subjects”

Explanation:

The first batch of Free SHS beneficiaries enrolled in the 2017/2018 academic year,  sat for their WASSCE in 2020. 

According to the West African Examinations Council’s (WAEC) data, 375,763 candidates took the exam, with pass rates of 57.34% in English, 65.71% in Mathematics, 52.53% passed in Integrated Science and 64.31% in Social Studies— all being core subjects and grades from A1 to C6.

 The grades A1 to C6 are considered by WAEC and the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NaCCA) as the pass grade to proceed to the tertiary level.

Additionally, an assessment of WASSCE results (specifically, the tertiary education qualifying grades- A1 to C6)  from 2016 to 2020  by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) noted the 2020 WASSCE results was indeed the best in the last five years. 

“Furthermore, the proportion of candidates making the TEQG [tertiary education qualifying grades] in all four core subjects exceeded 50% in the last two years (i.e. 2019 and 2020). This means a little over half of the candidates taking the WASSCE in the last two years obtained the tertiary education qualifying grades (A1-C6)”, the report further stated.

Source: Comparative analysis of WASSCE performance (Core Subjects) From 2016-2020

Fact-Check Ghana’s analysis based on WAEC’s data, also shows that the average pass rate across the four core subjects, from A1 to C6 was 59.97% in 2020. 

Below is a table of the average pass rate from 2016 to 2020 based on GES’ report 

Both WAEC’s data and the report by the Ghana Education Service(GES) noted pass rates from A1 to C6, none of the aforementioned data sources indicated a 68% A1 pass rate in 2020. Additionally, there is no publicly available or credible data to support Napo’s assertion that 68% of the candidates scored solely A1 in eight subjects.