The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, has released the corrected results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, following the discovery of grading discrepancies that significantly altered performance statistics.
At a press briefing on Friday at the council’s national office in Yaba, Lagos, Head of WAEC Nigeria, Dr. Amos Dangut, admitted to a “serious error” in the marking of serialised papers, which 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 it is very embarrassing,” Dangut said.
According to him, the error was linked to a new security measure — paper serialisation — which had been adopted from another national examination body. Post-examination reviews revealed that the English Language Objective Test (Paper 3) was scored with incorrect answer keys due to a wrongly assigned serialised code file. Other serialised subjects included Mathematics, Biology, and Economics.
Candidates who sat for the examination using the computer-based mode were not affected.
Following the correction, 1,794,821 candidates (91.14%) obtained credit and above in at least five subjects (with or without English Language and Mathematics). A total of 1,239,884 candidates (62.96%) secured five credits, including English and Mathematics — a sharp improvement from the previously announced 38.32%, though still lower than the 72.12% recorded in 2024. Of these, 657,819 (53.05%) were female, and 582,065 (46.95%) were male.
In total, 1,969,313 candidates sat the examination, including those from schools in Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea following the Nigerian curriculum. WAEC also catered to 12,178 special needs candidates, with results processed and released.
While 1,763,470 candidates (89.55%) have had their results fully processed, 205,916 (10.45%) still have one or more subjects pending due to technical issues. Results of 191,053 candidates (9.7%) are withheld over alleged examination malpractice, down from 11.92% in 2024.
WAEC urged candidates to access their results via www.waecdirect.org and apply for digital certificates, available within 48 hours after verification, with hard copies ready in 90 days. Candidates sponsored by indebted state governments will not be able to access their results until payments are made.
Dangut offered an unreserved apology to all affected stakeholders.
