All candidates of the West Africa Senior Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have been a month's grace period to prepare for their WASSCE papers.

This is according to a deputy education minister who argued this move is to help candidates have ample time to study and pass their WASSCE papers with flying colours.

According to Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, candidates from 2018 will be sitting for their papers in June instead of May. In 2017, the general performance of all 289,210 candidates was good as compared to the previous year of 2016.

In the area of Core Mathematics, exactly 122,450 candidates scored between AI and C6 with over 56,000 failing drastically. The situation regarding Integrated Science was worrying as close to over 76,000 candidates also failed with a terrible F9.

But the choice of June to be the month for WASSCE can't be a comfortable assurance for the good performance of candidates because of the huge student to teacher ratio in the country. A government, through the free SHS program, is expected to fully lift the ban on employment of teachers in the public sector to meet the huge demand.