WASSCE Best Candidates Ghana
The West African Examinations Council has announced that its annual celebration of academic excellence will take place at its Cantonments headquarters next week, shining a national spotlight on the students who outperformed hundreds of thousands of peers.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) will host its 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Distinction Awards on Thursday, March 12, 2026, bringing together Ghana’s most exceptional Senior High School graduates for a formal public recognition of their academic achievements.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Sakyi Asare-Menako (WAEC) Hall on SwitchBack Road, Cantonments, Accra — the Council’s dedicated venue for high-profile academic events.
What the Awards Represent
The annual Distinction Awards Ceremony is not merely a trophy presentation. It is WAEC’s most visible statement of commitment to academic standards, rewarding candidates who have demonstrated exceptional mastery of the WASSCE — the standardised school-leaving examination that serves as the gateway to tertiary education across Anglophone West Africa.
The Excellence and Distinction Awards were established under the WAEC Endowment Fund, which was created specifically to provide prizes and formal recognition to candidates who distinguish themselves in both national and international WAEC examinations.
According to a Council official, the awards serve a dual purpose: they publicly honour outstanding students, and they also reinforce confidence in the integrity of WAEC’s examination system. “The awards over the years have always confirmed the high reliability of the Council’s examinations,” the official noted, adding that every award winner has consistently demonstrated excellence throughout their academic career — not just on examination day.
Last Year’s Top Performers: A Closer Look
The 2024 ceremony — which recognised performance in the 2023 WASSCE for School Candidates — offers the clearest picture of what this year’s event might look like.
Out of 448,674 candidates who sat the 2023 WASSCE, a remarkably small group rose to the very top. Seven awards were presented in total, covering both overall performance and programme-specific excellence.
Leonard Kofi M. Amo-Kodieh, a former student of St. James Seminary Senior High School in Sunyani, emerged as the Overall Best Candidate, recording a t-score of 623.5512. He also took the top prize in the General Science Programme — a double recognition that underscored the breadth of his academic achievement.
The Second Overall Best position went to Selorm Dzandu of Labone Senior High School in Accra, with a t-score of 623.1882 — separated from the top spot by a margin of less than half a point.
Daniel Asenso-Gyambibi, also from St. James Seminary SHS in Sunyani, placed Third Overall with a t-score of 622.4438, giving the Brong-Ahafo school a remarkable double podium finish.
Programme-specific honours were equally competitive. Laudina Adutwumwaa of St. Monica’s Senior High School claimed the Best Candidate in the General Arts Programme, while Kwasi Asare Adjei-Fordjour of St. Augustine College, Cape Coast took the top spot in the Business Programme. The Technical Programme award went to Akosua Adjei Boateng of Juaso Senior High Technical School.
Why These Awards Matter
For many Ghanaian students and their families, WAEC results are among the most consequential outcomes of their secondary education. The WASSCE is the primary school-leaving qualification across Anglophone West Africa — including Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Liberia — and a strong performance can determine access to competitive university programmes and scholarships.
The Distinction Awards elevate that significance further, transforming individual examination results into a public celebration of merit. For schools, having a student named on the WAEC honours list carries reputational weight and can inspire future cohorts. For the students themselves, national recognition at this level opens doors — to scholarships, media profiles, and opportunities that extend well beyond the classroom.
This year’s ceremony will recognise candidates from the 2025 WASSCE for School, a cohort that sat the examination under conditions shaped by ongoing curriculum reforms and post-pandemic academic recovery efforts across the West African sub-region.
About the WASSCE
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination is administered by the West African Examinations Council and is offered exclusively to candidates in Anglophone West African countries. Upon successful completion, candidates receive the West African Senior School Certificate — a qualification broadly recognised by universities, employers, and professional bodies across the region and beyond.
WAEC, which has administered standardised examinations in West Africa for over seven decades, oversees millions of candidates annually across its member countries. The Distinction Awards represent the pinnacle of individual performance within that system.
What to Watch Next
With the March 12 ceremony now confirmed, attention turns to which candidates from the 2025 cohort will be called to the stage at Cantonments. Whether this year’s top scorers will match — or surpass — the extraordinary t-scores recorded in 2023 remains to be seen.
What is certain is that the students who stand in the Sakyi Asare-Menako Hall next Thursday will represent the best of an entire generation of West African secondary school graduates — young men and women whose performance, in WAEC’s own assessment, has set the standard for what academic excellence looks like in the region.
The 2025 WASSCE for School Distinction Awards Ceremony takes place on Thursday, March 12, 2026, at the WAEC Hall, SwitchBack Road, Cantonments, Accra. The event begins at 10:00 a.m.