Amid growing calls for the cancellation of the 2025 West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced a review of the results, which were released on Monday.
The council also directed all candidates who sat for this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) to re-check their results on its portal within 24 hours.
While candidates and parents faulted WAEC over reported mass failure, with some calling for the rejection and cancellation of the examination, the council rated the examination highly, adding that the innovations were measures geared towards curbing examination malpractices and other irregularities.
The WASSCE results revealed that 1,973,365 candidates registered for the examination from 23,554 recognized secondary schools in the country. Of the number that registered, 1,969,313 candidates sat for the examination. The examination was also administered to candidates from some schools in Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian curriculum for Senior Secondary Schools is used.
It also showed that a total of 12,178 candidates with varying degrees of special needs registered for the examination. Out of this number, 112 were visually challenged, 615 had impaired hearing; 52 were spastic cum mentally challenged, and 37 were physically challenged. All these candidates were adequately provided for in the administration of the examination. The results of these candidates have been processed and are also now being released along with those of other candidates.
The breakdown of the results further revealed that of the total number of 1,969,313 candidates that sat for the examination, 976,787 were males while 992,526 were females, representing 49.60% and 50.40%, respectively.
“Out of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination in Nigeria, 1,517,517 candidates, representing 77.06%, have their results fully processed and released while 451,796 candidates, representing 22.94%, have one or more of their subjects still being processed due to some issues to be resolved.”
The analysis of statistics of candidates’ performance in the examination shows that out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the examination, 1,718,090 candidates, representing 87.24%, obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five (5) subjects (i.e., with or without English Language and/or Mathematics), with 754,545 candidates, representing 38.32%, obtaining credits and above in a minimum of five (5) subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
In an address delivered at a press briefing, WAEC Head of Nigerian National Office, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut said, “Despite sternly advising candidates to work independently, we still recorded cases of candidates assigned different question papers who copied one another and had the same answers in virtually all questions.
“The effect of this activity was evident in the overall performance of candidates in the said papers. While performance in the essay papers remained comparable to those of the previous years, that of the objective papers recorded a slight but noticeable decline.
“This outcome reflects the success of the serialization strategy in reducing opportunities for examination malpractice and underscores the need for candidates to rely on genuine individual preparation before writing any examination,” it noted.
The result, however, showed that the examination body recorded its worst result in 10 years, with mass failure in the two core subjects, English Language and Mathematics. This outcome has generated mixed feelings and controversy across the country, with many blaming several factors, including systemic failure by WAEC, for the poor performance, as well as the council’s poor logistics in handling the examination, which led to the late-night writing of some subjects by candidates.
However, in a swift U-turn, the Result Viewing site of WAEC went down on Wednesday, with the body explaining in a statement that the site had crashed and would be restored within 24 hours.
The examination body, in a fresh statement issued on Thursday by its spokesperson, Moyosola Adesina, announced the restoration of the crashed Result Viewing Portal, while blaming a technical glitch for the 24-hour crash.
WAEC, in its fresh release, also asked candidates who might have checked their results before to re-visit the restored portal for the authenticity of their results, citing technical glitches detected during an internal review of the released results as the reason.
“WAEC sincerely regrets informing the general public of technical issues discovered during the internal review of the recently released results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC) 2025.
“As part of our efforts to curb examination malpractice, the council embarked on an innovation (paper serialization) already deployed by a national examination body. It is also worth noting that this is in line with best practices in assessment.
“The paper serialization was carried out in Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics. However, an internal post-result release procedure revealed some technical bugs in the results.
“The council, being a responsive body that is sensitive to fairness and professionalism, has decided to urgently review and correct the technical glitches that led to the situation; as a result, access to the WASSCE (SC) 2025 results has been temporarily denied on the result checker portal.
“We extend our deep and sincere apologies to all affected candidates and the general public. We appreciate their patience and understanding as we work diligently to resolve this matter with transparency and urgency within the next 24 hours.
“On this note, candidates who have previously checked their results are advised to re-check after 24 hours from now. WAEC remains committed to upholding excellence, fairness, and transparency in all our assessment processes. Thank you for always counting on our integrity and reposing confidence in us to render quality service to the Nigerian child,” the commission explained in the statement.
Meanwhile, despite the knocks from certain quarters, the examination body has received some praise from a few parents who described the new innovations as a way forward to curb the lingering examination malpractices and ensure that candidates can defend their results, as against the past.
A parent of one of the candidates, Mrs. Ijeoma Mark, lauded WAEC for introducing CBT and serialization, saying this will raise the quality of education in Nigeria and help Nigerian students to embrace global competitiveness.
Similarly, some secondary school teachers whose opinions were sampled by our correspondents have commended WAEC for its innovations in the examination, which they noted have curbed the incessant malpractices that have influenced candidates’ performances in the past.
Mrs. Bridget Okon, a senior English teacher in a government secondary school in Abuja, said on Wednesday that the poor performance in this year’s WASSCE didn’t come as a surprise, because it was no longer “business as usual” for many.
In an interview with the New National Star following the release of the 2025 WAEC results, she pointed to even stricter supervision and sweeping changes in the way the exams were conducted this year.
“Some of the invigilators who were supposed to supervise students were swapped. WAEC brought in invigilators from different schools. Even the marking process was swapped. This would have been a usual process except most of the times they weren’t told in advance,” she said.
She described this year’s conduct as the beginning of a tougher era for external exams in Nigeria, adding that both students and invigilators faced more scrutiny than before.
“There’s been a general sweep concerning malpractice and corruption in the education sector. And there are more eyes on the system now. It’s no longer the relaxed environment many were used to. From next year, WAEC and NECO will begin database exams. So, we’ve started telling our students to sit up,” she said.