The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is an examination board established by law to determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authorities internationally. Established in 1952, the council has contributed to education in Anglophone countries of West Africa, with the number of examinations they have coordinated, and certificates they have issued. They also formed an endowment fund, to contribute to education in West Africa, through lectures and aid to those who cannot afford education. Since established it continues to be one of the biggest and most globally recognized exams in West Africa.
Education in Ghana uses a dualistic approach encompassing both formal and informal learning systems. The current formal educational system was introduced during European colonisation. However, learning systems existed prior to that. The University of Moliyili is one of the earliest learning centers in Ghana established in the 1700s. During colonisation, European settlers initially introduced a formal education system addressed to the elites, while education of the average citizen was mainly informal, and based on apprenticeship. Economic activities in pre-colonial Ghana were based on farm produce shared within households and members of each household specialized in providing necessities such as cooking utilities, shelter, clothing, and furniture, and trade with other households was therefore practiced on a very small scale. As such there was no need for employment outside the household that would have otherwise called for disciplines, values, and skills through a formal education system. After colonization, Ghana's economy became a hybrid of subsistence and formal economy.
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is a type of standardized test in West Africa. Students who pass the exam receive a certificate confirming their graduation from secondary education. It is administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). It is only offered to candidates residing in Anglophone West African countries. The academic school-leaving qualification awarded upon successful completion of the exams is the West African Senior School Certificate.
Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School (PRESEC) is a secondary boarding school for boys. It is located in Legon, Accra, Ghana. It was founded in 1938, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast. The Basel missionary-theologian, Nicholas Timothy Clerk (1862–1961), who served as the first Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1918 to 1932, used his tenure to advocate for the establishment of the secondary school. The school has ties with its sister schools, Aburi Girls' Senior High School and Krobo Girls Senior High School.
St. Peter's Senior High School, or PERSCO, is a Roman Catholic boys' senior high school in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The school was established in 1957 by the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD). The school is located in the town of Nkwatia Kwahu on the Kwahu Ridge.
Holy Child School, also known as Angel's Hill, is an all girls boarding second-cycle institution in Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana. In 2003, the school was ranked among the best 10 schools in Africa, producing the best overall female student in the 2003 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSSCE) Holy Child School also produced the best and second-best overall students for the 2017 West African Senior School Examination, WASSCE.
Koforidua Senior High Technical School, is one of the best secondary technical schools in Ghana. The school is located at Koforidua, the capital of Eastern Region in southern Ghana. Koforidua Secondary technical also called Sec-Tech, is a Senior High School located in Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana. As of December 2011, the school has over 2,200 students.
Pope John Senior High School and Minor Seminary, is an all-boys boarding school, located at Effiduase, Koforidua, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It was established in 1958 by Bishop Joseph Oliver Bowers SVD as a Catholic seminary for boys who wished to become priests. Students are offered courses such as general arts, general science, business and visual arts to pursue and after their stay in the school, sit an external examination called the West African Senior School Certificate Examination to be placed in any of the tertiary institutions in the country.
Asanteman Senior High School is a co-educational second-cycle institution in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Accra Girls Senior High School is an all female second cycle institution in Accra in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. It operates as a non-denominational day and boarding school. It runs courses in business, general science, general arts, home economics and visual arts, leading to the award of a West African Senior High School Certificate (WASSCE). Accra Girls Senior High Accra Girls Senior High School hosted a session organized by the Community Education and Youth Development Directorate of the National Commission on Culture, aimed at preparing final-year students for their WAEC examination.
The Ridge Church School is an independent and parochial co-educational preparatory day school in Accra, Ghana. Situated between the Gamel Abdul Nasser Avenue and Guinea Bissau Road and opposite the Efua Sutherland Children's Park, it was founded by the Accra Ridge Church in 1957, the year of Ghana's independence from the United Kingdom. The Ridge Church School is located on the premises of the church. It was the first wholly private basic school to be established in modern Ghana. The Accra Ridge Church was the first international solely English-speaking Protestant church in Ghana. The school is inter-denominational Christian, holding ties to the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, that assign chaplains to both the church and school. The school runs a ten–year programme from kindergarten to lower primary through upper primary to junior high and culminating in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). The school largely follows the prescribed curriculum and syllabus of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
St. James Seminary is a senior high school in Sunyani, the capital of the Bono region of Ghana, founded in 1978 by Most Rev. James Kwadwo Owusu, the late bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sunyani. It is not just a Senior High School, but also a Catholic Minor Seminary which offers a wide range of opportunities for both seminarians and non-Seminarians to make them not only aware of their potentials, but to fulfill them. The school emphasizes moral, spiritual and positive character formation in addition to striving to achieve academic excellence. St. James has been adjudged the best senior high school in Ghana over the past decade having featured consecutively in the list of top ten performing schools in the West African Examinations Council’s Senior School Certificate Exams (WASSCE) over the period. It topped the WASSCE in 2006, 2009 and 2011 and produced the overall best and third best candidates in West Africa in the 2016 exam.
Notre Dame Seminary Senior High School is an all male second cycle educational institution founded by Very Rev. Fr. Armand Lebel. The first batch of thirty-one (31) students were admitted on September 16, 1960. It is a day and boarding school. Currently, the school has a population of about 500 students studying either General Science or General Arts. The school is located in Navrongo in the Kasena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana.
Ebenezer Senior High School, is a public secondary educational institution in Ghana and operates as a non-denominational and mixed school. It is located in Mpoase, near Dansoman in Accra, in the Ablekuma West Municipal District of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
The Presbyterian Senior High School is a Presbyterian coeducational first-cycle institution in Akuapim-Mampong in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It is situated northeast of Tutu, close to Mampong Akwapim Senior High/Technical School for the Deaf.
Benkum Senior High School, is a Presbyterian category B co-educational first-cycle institution in Larteh Akuapem in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Presbyterian Senior High Technical School, is a Presbyterian co-educational second-cycle institution in Adukrom, situated in the Okere District in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Adonten Senior High School is a coeducational first-cycle institution located south of Aburi in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Breman Asikuma Senior High School is a secondary school in Ghana and operates as a non-denominational day and boarding school, located at Breman Asikuma in the Central Region. It was the first high school in Asikuma/Odoben/Brakwa District.
Simms Senior High School (SIMMSCO) is a co-ed secondary school located in Fawoade in the Ashanti Region established in 1977 as a private school by Mr. Simms Kofi Mensah to provide education to the people of Kwabre in the Ashanti Region.
