The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has described as untrue rumours that the Council has introduced the Stanine Grading System for 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates.
Mr John K. Kapi, the Head of Public Affairs, WAEC, Friday said “This grading system has been in use since the inception of the BECE in 1990.”
“It has been found to be the best that could be used for both certification and selection when the reforms were introduced at that time.”
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra, Mr Kapi said the Stanine Grading System “ranks and compares students’ performance in relation to one another as they are considered as a target population.”
“It is, therefore, untrue that this grading system was used only this year, as it is being rumoured and circulated on some social media platforms.”
WAEC uses the Stanine Grading System for BECE grading.
The Stanine grading system is norm-referenced, meaning the structure of the results is pre-determined.
Under Stanine, the % of candidates who will obtain grades 1-9 is virtually fixed, so you must justify your inclusion to enter that percentage bracket.
- Only the best scoring 4% (24,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper can get Grade 1.
- Automatically, the next 7% (42,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 2
- Automatically, the next 12% (72,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 3
- Automatically, the next 17% (102,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 4.
- Automatically, the next 20% (120,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 5.
- Automatically, the next 17% (102,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 6.
- And the last 4% ( 24,000) will always get Grade
This means you can have 90% in Math and still be in the second 7% (Grade 2), simply because 4% of candidates had 91-100% in that subject. Again, not more than 4% can have Grade 1.
This same system is applied to the WASCCE for school and private candidates. It should guide candidates and challenge them to work extra hard to get into the best percentages in all subjects.
This way, their final results or aggregate will be good and merit them admission into a tertiary institution.
The Stanine grading system is a way of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a mean of five and a standard deviation of two.
It is a norm-referenced grading system, which means that each score is assigned based on how it compares to the scores of other students in the same group.
Stanine scores are calculated by dividing the normal distribution into nine equal intervals, each of which has a width of 0.5 standard deviations.
The mean score is assigned to the middle interval, and the remaining eight intervals are assigned scores from 1 to 9, with the highest scores assigned to the most extreme intervals.
The Stanine grading system is used in a variety of settings, including education, psychology, and business. It is often used to report test scores in a way that is easy to understand and interpret.
For example, a Stanine score of 9 indicates that a student performed in the top 4% of their class on a test. A Stanine score of 1 indicates that a student performed in the bottom 4% of their class on a test.
How the Stanine grading system is applied
The Stanine grading system can be applied to any type of test score, including standardised test scores, teacher-made test scores, and performance assessment scores. To calculate a Stanine score, the test scores must first be normalised.
This can be done by converting the scores to a z-score or by using a percentile table.
Once the test scores have been normalised, the following steps can be used to calculate a Stanine score:
Find the normalised test score
Find the corresponding Stanine score in the Stanine grading table.
For example, if a student scored a 75 on a test, their normalised test score would be 1.0.
This is because a score of 75 is one standard deviation above the mean score of 50.
The corresponding Stanine score for a normalised test score of 1.0 is 7.
This means that the student performed in the 73rd-83rd percentile on the test.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Stanine grading system
One of the main advantages of the Stanine grading system is that it is easy to understand and interpret.
The nine-point scale is familiar to most people, and the percentile ranges provide additional information about how a student’s performance compares to the performance of other students.
Another advantage of the Stanine grading system is that it is a norm-referenced grading system.
This means that a student’s grade is based on how their performance compares to the performance of other students in the same group.
This can help identify students who are struggling or excelling relative to their peers.
However, there are also some disadvantages to the Stanine grading system.
One disadvantage is that it can be difficult to accurately compare Stanine scores from different tests.
This is because different tests may have different difficulty levels and distributions of scores.
Another disadvantage of the Stanine grading system is that it can be difficult to interpret Stanine scores for small groups of students.
This is because the percentile ranges for Stanine scores are based on large populations of students.
Overall, the Stanine grading system is a useful tool for reporting test scores in a way that is easy to understand and interpret.
However, it is important to be aware of the limitations of the system when interpreting Stanine scores.
Mr Kapi said WAEC alone could not decide the grading system for BECE candidates, adding that the Council would have to consult the Ghana Education Service (GES) on such matters.
“All policy decisions about the BECE are made by the Ghana Education Service or, in special cases, by WAEC in consultation with the Ghana Education Service.”
Mr Kapi said the results of the BECE Private Candidates would be released by the close of the day, September 5, 2025.
Touching on the withheld results for schools, Mr Kapi said:
“Investigations have been concluded, and the relevant committees will determine the outcome of their cases.”
The provisional results of BECE for School candidates were released on August 23, 2025, after the examination on June 11 – 18.
A total of 603,328 candidates, comprising 297,250 males and 306,078 females from 20,395 participating schools, entered for the school examination.
Some 1,661 candidates, comprising 858 males and 803 females, registered for the BECE for private candidates.
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