In a near mass failure, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has attributed the poor performance of candidates in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), released on Monday, to its new strategy of serialising objective test papers in core subjects like Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics.

The examination body, which announced the release of the 2025 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) results for school candidates at a press conference in Lagos, said the measure aimed to curb widespread malpractice.

Amos Josiah Dangut, Head of WAEC Nigeria Office, disclosed that a total of 1,973,365 candidates registered for the examination from 23,554 recognised secondary schools across the country.

He revealed that only 754,545 out of 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the examination scored five credits, including English and Mathematics.

According to the analysis, this represents a significant decline in candidate performance, which is a sharp 33.8 percent drop from the 72.12 percent recorded in 2024.

Speaking at the press briefing held at the Council’s national headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Dangut said:

“This approach drastically reduced the incidence of collusion and made examination malpractice more difficult.
We observed a dip in the performance of objective papers, but essay papers remained consistent with previous years. It’s a strong signal that candidates must rely on their own preparation.”

Dangut further explained that of the total number of candidates, 1,517,517 (77.06 per cent) had their results fully released, while 451,796 (22.94 per cent) had some subjects still being processed due to technical issues, which he promised would be resolved in a few days. He also noted that 12,178 candidates with varying degrees of special needs registered for the examination.

On examination malpractice, he said 192,089 results, representing 9.75 percent of total candidates are being withheld for various offences, including the use of banned mobile phones and collusion. This marks a slight improvement from the 11.92 percent withheld in 2024.

WAEC also warned rogue website operators and compromised supervisors to desist from aiding examination fraud.

“These unscrupulous elements have become a thorn in the Council’s flesh. Some even use our name to distribute fake messages. We’ve apprehended some of them, and appropriate sanctions will be applied,” Dangut said.

Meanwhile, the examination body has urged candidates to access their results by visiting the Council’s result portal at http://waecdirect.org.