The release of the 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results has once again highlighted persistent issues in Ghana's education sector.

As thousands of students celebrated their success, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) announced that the results of 93 candidates had been entirely withheld, while the subject results of 1,240 candidates were also withheld due to suspected widespread malpractices.

These ranged from collusion and possession of unapproved materials to leaked questions, many of which were reportedly circulated via social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

Beyond the irregularities, the results have reignited a long-standing debate about the credibility and fairness of one-off, high-stakes national exams.

Parents and educators have expressed concerns that some students who excel consistently in their daily academic work received mediocre grades at the BECE, raising doubts about whether the results truly reflect their children’s potential.

A parent at Achimota Basic School, for example, lamented that students who regularly topped their class were suddenly scoring aggregates of 14 or 15—results that seemed inconsistent with their proven track record of excellence.

Such stories evoke an uncomfortable but important question: Is a single national exam the best way to measure a child’s abilities and intelligence?

The undue emphasis on one-off tests also creates fertile ground for malpractice. With so much depending on a single result, schools, parents, and even invigilators at times collude to give candidates an unfair advantage. In Ghana, this has become almost ritualistic during the BECE season. But the issue is not unique to Ghana. Across Africa and parts of South Asia, questions about the integrity of high-stakes exams have become increasingly prominent.

In Kenya, for instance, observers note that exams have become “life or death” affairs, generating immense pressure that distorts the learning process. Likewise, educators in the developing world warn that malpractice erodes confidence in national certificates and, ultimately, undermines trust in education systems.

Ghana has introduced several measures to address these problems. In 2021, the former Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, noted that the serialisation and randomisation of question papers had helped reduce leakages. At that time, the Ministry also announced efforts to expand these measures so that even students sitting side by side might receive slightly different versions of the same exam. While this innovation shows promise, it must be supplemented with stronger monitoring systems for digital platforms, where questions are increasingly leaked and sold. WAEC itself has admitted that monitoring social media remains one of its biggest challenges, making collaboration with cybercrime units and stricter enforcement vital.

Yet it is important to recognise that technical fixes alone cannot resolve the broader issue of fairness in assessment. Sole reliance on single-instance exams such as the BECE cannot capture the diverse abilities of students. Many children excel in continuous project work, oral presentations, or problem-solving, but these strengths remain invisible in a system biased toward timed written exams. Countries that have adopted mixed models of assessment—blending continuous assessment with final exams—tend to produce results that more accurately reflect student potential. Ghana can adopt such models to ensure that one day’s performance does not overshadow years of effort.

Transparency is another critical piece of the puzzle. Students and parents often feel powerless when confronted with results they cannot challenge. A transparent and accessible system for remarking or appeals would help rebuild public trust. Similarly, investment in online learning tools, tutorials, and support schemes can reduce the desperation that drives some schools and students to cheat.

The BECE remains a crucial milestone in Ghana’s academic journey; however, its integrity is under threat. Malpractices erode public confidence, penalise honest students, and cast doubt on the value of academic achievement itself. More importantly, the current one-shot model risks misrepresenting the abilities of many children—branding them as mediocre when, in reality, they are outstanding.

Ghana must therefore take bold steps: restructuring assessment practices, tightening monitoring mechanisms, and rethinking how excellence is defined in schools. Only then can the country ensure that its certificates truly reflect merit, integrity, and the full potential of its young people.

Until we redefine what success truly means, we risk failing the very children our education system was created to serve.