The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has praised the successful conduct of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), stating that its adoption of Computer-Based Test (CBT) and serialization has helped sanitize the system and expose the true performance of candidates.

While candidates and parents faulted WAEC over mass failure and called for the rejection or cancellation of the results, the council rated the examination highly, adding that the innovations were measures to curb examination malpractices and other irregularities.

The WASSCE results, released earlier this week (Monday), 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 Senior Secondary School curriculum 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 now being released along with those of other candidates.

The breakdown of the results disclosed that of the total number of 1,969,313 candidates who 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).

754,545 candidates, representing 38.32%, obtained credits and above in a minimum of five (5) subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

Explaining this major breakthrough innovation deployed in the 2025 WASSCE, a WAEC official who did not want to be named said, “You will recall that prior to the commencement of the examination, the council sensitized candidates and the general public that as a means of curbing examination malpractice, it had introduced the serialization of objective test question papers in Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics. Under this approach, each candidate was assigned a specific paper type, making collusion and other forms of examination malpractice extremely difficult to perpetrate.”

Also, in an address delivered at a press briefing, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut said that, “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.

“The council remains steadfast in its commitment to credible examinations and will continue to adopt innovative measures that safeguard the integrity of its assessments while promoting true learning and academic excellence among its candidates.”

On examination malpractice, the council said, “the results of 192,089 candidates, representing 9.75% of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination, are being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice. This is 2.17% lower than the 11.92% recorded in the WASSCE for School Candidates, 2024.

“The increasing use of cell phones in the examination hall, in spite of the existing ban, and organized cheating in some schools, are other nagging issues. All the cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate committee of the council for consideration and final decisions. The committee’s decisions will be communicated to the affected candidates through their various schools in due course. Candidates affected by these decisions can now call for redress of their malpractice cases if they so wish via https://waecinternational.org/complaints

“The council will continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice as schools, supervisors, teachers, and candidates perpetrating this evil are not helping the educational system. All hands must therefore be on deck to sanitize the system.”

Speaking on the states whose results are yet to be released, WAEC said the withheld results were due to the fact that the results of candidates who are sponsored by states indebted to the council will not be released now until payment is made.

Though he did not mention these states, Dangut appealed to the concerned parties to do the needful to enable the affected schools/candidates to access their results.

On her part, 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.

…It’s no longer business as usual; teachers thumb up WAEC

Meanwhile, some of the 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 did not 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 on Monday, 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.”

Mrs. Okon’s comments come amid backlash over the dismal performance recorded in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination. The results also exposed deeper issues: poor literacy and numeracy, weak teacher training, and the continued performance gap between public and private schools. Students in private institutions again outperformed those in public schools, underlining disparities in resources and teaching quality.

Technical and vocational subjects like Technical Drawing, Agricultural Science, and Further Mathematics also saw poor scores, raising concerns over Nigeria’s readiness for a skills-based economy.

Interestingly, female students fared slightly better than their male counterparts in subjects like English and Literature, in line with a trend seen in recent years.