MBSSE launches three-pillar strategy to boost WASSCE English scores

MBSSE launches three-pillar strategy to boost WASSCE English scores

The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) has launched a high-priority initiative designed to comprehensively address declining English Language performance in the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE). Officials have characterized the consistent underperformance as a critical national challenge.

The initiative was announced following a two-day intensive summit that convened key education stakeholders, paramount chiefs, and traditional leaders. The Ministry acknowledged that years of stagnant or deteriorating results in English necessitated a fundamental restructuring of how the subject is instructed, managed, and resourced in senior secondary schools across Sierra Leone.

Strategic Intervention: The Three Pillars of Reform

The MBSSE has structured its comprehensive intervention around three core strategic pillars to reverse the downward trend:

• Pedagogy: This pillar mandates the transformation of classroom instruction through specialized teacher training. The focus will shift from rote learning toward emphasizing reading comprehension, critical writing skills, and the systematic adoption of the new 2026 curriculum lesson plans.

• Admission: Officials plan to establish stricter alignment criteria between student literacy capabilities and senior secondary (SSS) placement. This approach aims to ensure students possess the necessary foundational literacy for the SSS level, thereby mitigating the "learning gap" that frequently impedes student success by the time of the WASSCE.

• Resources: The Ministry has committed to supplying schools with targeted English Language materials. These resources include the latest Pupils’ Handbooks and digital revision tools specifically calibrated to align with the actual West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examination format.

• Community and Curricular Context: Recognizing that successful educational reform necessitates broad societal ownership, the MBSSE specifically engaged traditional leaders. Their support is vital for enforcing student attendance and fostering a community-wide culture of reading. An official statement underscored that addressing the literacy challenge requires a collective commitment—"a pact between the school, the home, and the community leadership".

This intervention is timely, as the 2026 WASSCE will assess the first cohort of candidates under the government’s new transition curriculum, which features 37 approved subjects. English Language remains the mandatory core subject essential for determining a student's eligibility for higher education.

The Ministry cautions that failure to implement these three strategic areas immediately risks undermining the efficacy of the new curriculum due to persistent literacy deficits. 

Monitoring teams are scheduled to commence district-level assessments next month to verify the effective integration of the three pillars into school operations.