THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, has released the reviewed results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, following a 24-hour shutdown of its results portal to fix what it called “technical bugs” linked to a new anti-malpractice feature.
The WAEC had temporarily denied access to the results on August 7, citing anomalies caused by its recently introduced “paper serialisation” system.
The system, designed to reduce collusion in exam halls, was deployed in core subjects including Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics, according to the council.
The ICIR reported that initial results released on August 4 showed a drastic decline in performance, with only 38.32 per cent of candidates obtaining at least five credits, including English and Mathematics.
This triggered public outrage and allegations of operational lapses, which would later lead to the council announcing a review of the results.
On Friday, August 8, at a press conference in Yaba, Lagos State, WAEC Nigeria’s Head, Amos Dangut, admitted that a major grading error in serialised papers had misrepresented candidates’ performance.
“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,” Dangut said.
According to him, the review showed that the English Language Objective Test (Paper 3) was graded with incorrect answer keys due to a wrongly assigned serialised code file.
He noted that other affected papers included Mathematics, Biology, and Economics, adding that candidates who wrote the exams on the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) platform were not affected.
“We investigated and discovered that a serialised code file was wrongly used in the printing of the English Language Objective paper.
“This resulted in them being marked with incorrect answer keys. It is important to note that candidates who wrote the exams using the computer-based mode were not affected,” Dangut explained.
Following the corrections, WAEC announced that 1,239,884 candidates, representing 62.9 per cent, now obtained credit passes in at least five subjects, including English and Mathematics.
He stressed that 657,819 females (53.05 per cent) and 582,065 males (46.95 per cent) achieved this benchmark.
This is a sharp improvement from the initial 38.32 per cent, but still below the 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.
Dabgut noted that in total, 1,794,821 candidates (91.14 per cent) obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English and Mathematics).
He also confirmed that the results of 191,053 candidates (9.7 per cent) remain withheld over alleged examination malpractice.
“WAEC will continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice. All hands must be on deck to sanitise the system,” Dangut emphasised.
The organisation has advised candidates to re-check their results via www.waecdirect.org and noted that digital certificates would be available within 48 hours, with printed copies ready in 90 days.
It, however, added that candidates sponsored by indebted state governments would not be able to access their results until outstanding payments are cleared.
“We appeal to the concerned authorities to do the needful to enable affected schools and candidates to access their results,” it urged.
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