The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has officially announced a corrected version of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results for school candidates, significantly increasing the number of students who passed with credit in key subjects.
At a press briefing held in Lagos on Friday, August 8, the Head of the National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, disclosed that the earlier published results were impacted by a technical glitch involving a misused serialised code during the marking process. This issue, which affected English Language Objective tests, led to incorrect grading for some candidates who took the paper-based examination.
According to Dr. Dangut, the initial results released on Monday, August 4, had indicated that only 754,545 candidates (38.32%) obtained credit passes in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. However, after a thorough internal review and correction, the updated results now show that 1,239,884 candidates (62.96%) achieved this benchmark — a significant improvement.
What Went Wrong?
WAEC had implemented a new “paper serialisation” innovation aimed at enhancing examination integrity. Unfortunately, during the printing of the English Language Objective test (Paper 3), a wrong serialised code file was mistakenly used, resulting in candidates being scored with incorrect answer keys.
The error was discovered during a routine post-examination audit of results, prompting an immediate investigation into all serialised papers — specifically Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics Objective tests.
Dr. Dangut clarified that candidates who took the computer-based version of the exam were not affected.
“The Council, being an accountable, transparent and credible organisation, further investigated all the serialised papers… and discovered that a serialised code file was wrongly used… which resulted in them being scored with the wrong keys,” he stated.
Updated 2025 WASSCE Performance Breakdown
Total candidates who sat the exam: 1,969,313
- Male: 976,787 (49.60%)
- Female: 992,526 (50.40%)
Candidates with credit and above in five subjects (with or without English/Math): 1,718,090 (87.24%)
Candidates with credit and above in five subjects including English & Math (corrected): 1,239,884 (62.96%)
- Male: 582,065 (46.95%)
- Female: 657,819 (53.05%)
Despite the improvement, Dr. Dangut noted that this year’s performance still reflects a 9.16% decrease from the 72.12% recorded in 2024 for candidates who met the same benchmark.
Apology and Way Forward
Dr. Dangut expressed deep regret and issued a public apology to all affected candidates, parents, educators, and government bodies. He acknowledged the anxiety caused by the initial results and assured stakeholders that the Council is taking steps to ensure such incidents do not recur.
“We acknowledge the emotional ordeal… This is a trying time for us at WAEC; we are doing everything we can to ensure that such a dismal situation does not recur,” he said.
Next Steps for Candidates
WAEC has now uploaded the corrected results on its official portal: www.waecdirect.org. Candidates who have fulfilled their financial obligations to the Council can access their updated results within 12 hours of the announcement.
Additionally, candidates are encouraged to apply for their digital certificates, which will be made available 48 hours after result verification.
“As the reviewed results are being uploaded… candidates should, after checking the result online, apply for their digital certificate,” Dr. Dangut advised.
Broader Concerns Over Exam Integrity
The WAEC error comes on the heels of a similar technical mishap that nearly marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), further intensifying public scrutiny over the reliability of standardized examinations in Nigeria.
With this correction, WAEC hopes to rebuild trust and reaffirm its commitment to transparency, fairness, and academic integrity.
