THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the 2025 WASSCE results, showing a drastic fall in candidates’ performance compared to the previous year.
The result showed that only 38.32 per cent of candidates who sat for the exam obtained at least five credits including English and Mathematics, a drop from the 72.12 per cent success rate recorded in 2024.
The examination body said the sharp decline in the pass rate was a result of a crackdown on exam malpractice and a shift toward digital testing.
Addressing journalists at WAEC’s national headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, on Monday, August 4, the Head of the Nigeria National Office, Amos Dangut, attributed the decline to reforms aimed at curbing cheating, particularly the serialisation of objective test papers in major subjects.
“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 said.
The ICIR, however, reports that the decline might not be disconnected from the operational failures reported during the conduct of the examination.
In May, The ICIR reported that WAEC detained students in exam halls as late as midnight in several states, including Kwara and Osun, after the leak of the English Language paper.
Some students were forced to write the paper using torchlights, with many parents and rights groups criticising the Council for what they called ‘inhumane’ treatment.
The WAEC initially declined to comment but later admitted the delay was intended to “protect the integrity of our examinations.”
The 2025 examination was conducted between April 24 and June 20, followed by coordination and marking from July 3 to 21.
Dangut stated that the Council also introduced real-time digital scoring to boost result processing speed and accuracy.
He also noted that of the total number of candidates, WAEC released results for 1,517,517 (77.06 per cent), while 451,796 (22.94 per cent) were still being processed due to technical issues the Council promised to resolve in the coming days.
The exam body also withheld 192,089 results (9.75 per cent) for various offences, including the use of mobile phones and group cheating. This was a slight improvement from the 11.92 per cent withheld in 2024.
“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 vowed.
He warned that state governments owing the Council would not have access to the results of students they sponsored until the debts are cleared.
A total of 12,178 candidates with special needs were registered for the 2025 WASSCE. Among them were 112 visually impaired candidates, 615 with hearing impairments, 52 with mental challenges, and 37 with physical disabilities.
On gender distribution, 976,787 candidates (49.60 per cent) were male, while 992,526 (50.40 per cent) were female.
Among those who passed with five credits including English and Mathematics, girls outperformed boys, accounting for 53.99 per cent (407,353) of the successful candidates, compared to 46.01 per cent (347,192) male candidates.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M