Photo File: Dangut, middle and members of the council at the press conference. Credit: WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, has published revised results for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, following the discovery of a major grading error that distorted earlier performance statistics.

At a press conference in Lagos on Friday, the Head of WAEC Nigeria, Dr. Amos Dangut, admitted to a serious blunder in the marking of serialised examination papers, describing the development as both “embarrassing” and “regrettable.” The error, traced to the English Language Objective Test, occurred when a wrongly assigned serialised code file led to the use of incorrect answer keys. Other subjects with serialised versions — including Mathematics, Biology, and Economics — were also reviewed.

Dr. Dangut explained that the issue emerged from a recently introduced paper serialisation security measure, already in use by another national examining body. While candidates who sat for the exams via computer-based testing were unaffected, those who wrote the affected paper formats had their scores misrepresented.

The corrected results show that 1,794,821 candidates — representing 91.14% — obtained credit and above in at least five subjects, with or without English Language and Mathematics. Of these, 1,239,884 candidates (62.96%) earned five credits including English Language and Mathematics, a sharp improvement from the previously announced 38.32%. However, the figure still marks a 9.16% decline from the 72.12% performance recorded in 2024.

In the breakdown, female candidates accounted for 53.05% of those with five credits including English and Mathematics, while males represented 46.95%. A total of 1,969,313 candidates wrote the examination, including students from Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea, all of which run the Nigerian curriculum.

WAEC confirmed that the results of 12,178 special needs candidates — including visually impaired, hearing impaired, physically challenged, and mentally challenged students — have also been processed and released. Currently, 1,763,470 candidates (89.55%) have complete results, while 205,916 candidates still have one or more subjects pending due to technical issues.

The council also revealed that results of 191,053 candidates (9.7%) are being withheld over suspected examination malpractice, a figure lower than the 11.92% recorded in 2024. Investigations are underway, and affected candidates can lodge complaints via the council’s online platform.

Dr. Dangut appealed to state governments owing the council to settle their debts so that affected students can access their results. He also encouraged candidates to retrieve their results at www.waecdirect.org and apply for their digital certificates, available within 48 hours of verification, while printed certificates will be ready in 90 days.

Offering an unreserved apology to students, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders, Dr. Dangut stressed WAEC’s commitment to preventing a recurrence of such an error. He thanked the Federal Government, the Minister of Education, and state education bodies for their support during the review process, assuring that the council was taking “all necessary measures to safeguard the integrity of its examinations.”