The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, has released corrected results for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), following the discovery of major grading errors that affected thousands of candidates across the country.
Speaking during a press conference at the council’s national office in Yaba, Lagos, the Head of WAEC Nigeria, Dr. Amos Dangut, confirmed that an internal error occurred during the marking of serialised papers, especially the English Language Objective Test.
“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,” Dangut said. “This is very difficult for us to say, but we have to admit that it is very embarrassing.”
According to him, a newly introduced security measure known as paper serialisation was responsible for the mix-up. A wrongly assigned code file led to the English Language paper being marked with incorrect answer keys. He clarified that candidates who wrote the exam via the computer-based mode were not affected.
Other subjects affected include Mathematics, Biology and Economics.
Following the correction, 1,794,821 candidates — representing 91.14 per cent — now have credit and above in at least five subjects, with or without English and Mathematics. A total of 1,239,884 candidates, or 62.96 per cent, obtained five credits including English and Mathematics, a sharp increase from the 38.32 per cent earlier recorded before the error was discovered.
Female candidates made up 53.05 per cent of those who achieved this benchmark, while males accounted for 46.95 per cent.
WAEC, however, noted that this figure still falls short of the 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.
A total of 1,969,313 candidates sat for the 2025 examination, including candidates from schools in Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea, which run the Nigerian curriculum.
The council also processed and released results for 12,178 special needs candidates, including those visually and hearing impaired, physically challenged, and those with mental disabilities.
So far, 1,763,470 candidates (89.55 per cent) have had their results fully processed and released, while 205,916 candidates (10.45 per cent) still have one or more subjects pending due to technical issues. WAEC assured that efforts are ongoing to complete the process for affected students.
Results of 191,053 candidates (9.7 per cent) are currently being withheld over allegations of examination malpractice. This marks a reduction from the 11.92 per cent recorded in 2024. Investigations are ongoing and candidates can file complaints via waecinternational.org/complaints.
“WAEC will continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice. All hands must be on deck to sanitise the system,” Dangut added.
Candidates are advised to check their updated results via the official WAEC portal, www.waecdirect.org, and apply for digital certificates, which are available within 48 hours of result verification. Hard copy certificates will be ready in 90 days.
However, WAEC issued a stern reminder that candidates sponsored by state governments who are yet to settle their debts to the council will not be able to access their results.
“We appeal to the concerned authorities to do the needful to enable affected schools and candidates to access their results,” Dangut urged.
Offering 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,” he said.
