The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, has released revised results for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, following the discovery of grading discrepancies that significantly affected performance statistics.
During a press briefing on Friday at the Council’s national office in Yaba, Lagos, the Head of WAEC Nigeria, Dr. Amos Dangut, admitted to a major error in the marking of serialised examination papers, which distorted the actual performance of candidates.
“With deep sorrow and regret, I, on behalf of the Registrar to Council, Management, and Staff of WAEC Nigeria, apologise for the discrepancies discovered in the grading of serialised papers. This is very difficult for us to say, but we have to admit that it is very embarrassing,” Dr. Dangut stated.
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He explained that WAEC had implemented a new security feature known as paper serialisation, which is already in use by another national examination body. However, during post-examination reviews, it was discovered that the English Language Objective Test (Paper 3) was scored with incorrect answer keys due to a wrongly assigned serialised code file.
Other subjects affected by serialisation included Mathematics, Biology, and Economics.
“We investigated and found that a serialised code file was wrongly used in the printing of the English Language Objective paper, which led to marking with incorrect answer keys. It is important to clarify that candidates who took the exams via computer-based testing were not affected,” he added.
With the error corrected, 1,794,821 candidates representing 91.14 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English and Mathematics). Notably, 1,239,884 candidates, or 62.96 per cent, obtained five credits including English and Mathematics, a significant jump from the previously reported 38.32 per cent.
Among them, 657,819 were female candidates (53.05 per cent), while 582,065 were male (46.95 per cent). Despite the correction, the new performance level still reflects a decline of 9.16 per cent from the 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.
A total of 1,969,313 candidates sat for the examination, including students from WAEC-accredited schools in Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea, which follow the Nigerian curriculum.
The Council also provided special arrangements for 12,178 candidates with special needs, including 112 visually impaired, 615 hearing impaired, 37 physically challenged, and 52 with spastic or mental challenges. Their results have also been processed and released.
“So far, 1,763,470 candidates (89.55 per cent) have had their results fully processed. However, 205,916 candidates (10.45 per cent) still have one or more subjects pending due to technical issues,” Dangut said, assuring that efforts are ongoing to complete the processing and release the outstanding results.
Meanwhile, the results of 191,053 candidates (9.7 per cent) have been withheld due to suspected examination malpractice, an improvement from the 11.92 per cent recorded in 2024. Investigations are ongoing, and affected candidates may lodge complaints at waecinternational.org/complaints.
“WAEC will continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice. All hands must be on deck to sanitise the system,” he reiterated.
WAEC advised candidates to access their results via www.waecdirect.org and apply for digital certificates, which will be available within 48 hours of verification. Hard copy certificates will be ready within 90 days.
However, candidates sponsored by indebted state governments will not be able to access their results until the outstanding payments are settled.
“We appeal to the concerned authorities to do the needful to enable affected schools and candidates to access their results,” Dangut urged.
He concluded with an unreserved apology to stakeholders.
“We acknowledge the emotional ordeal that candidates, parents, teachers, school administrators, Ministries of Education, and the media must have endured. This is a trying time for us at WAEC. We are doing everything possible to ensure that such an incident does not recur.”
WAEC expressed gratitude to the Federal Government, the Minister of Education, and state education authorities for their support throughout the review and resolution process.
