The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced a significant drop in the performance of candidates in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.
Out of the 1,969,313 students who took the exams across 23,554 schools, only 754,545 — representing 38.32% — obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics. This is a major fall from the 72.12% recorded in 2024, showing a 33.8% decline.
Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, August 4, 2025, at WAEC’s national headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, the Head of the Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, attributed the poor performance to the council’s new method of serialising objective test questions in core subjects such as English, Mathematics, Biology, and Economics.
“This approach drastically reduced the incidence of collusion and made examination malpractice more difficult. We observed a dip in the performance of objective papers, but essay papers remained consistent with previous years. It’s a strong signal that candidates must rely on their own preparation,” Dangut stated.
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The exams were conducted between April 24 and June 20, 2025, while marking took place from July 3 to 21. WAEC also introduced a real-time digital scoring system to speed up and improve the accuracy of result processing.
So far, results for 1,517,517 candidates (77.06%) have been processed and released, while 451,796 (22.94%) are still being worked on due to technical issues, which WAEC says will be resolved soon.
Regarding malpractice, 192,089 results — representing 9.75% — are currently withheld for offences such as using banned mobile phones and collusion. This is slightly better than the 11.92% withheld in 2024.
“These unscrupulous elements have become a thorn in the Council’s flesh. Some even use our name to distribute fake messages. We’ve apprehended some of them, and appropriate sanctions will be applied,” Dangut warned.
The council also disclosed that states owing WAEC would not be able to access the results of their sponsored candidates until outstanding debts are cleared.
A total of 12,178 special needs candidates registered for the 2025 WASSCE, including 112 visually impaired, 615 with hearing impairments, 52 mentally challenged, and 37 with physical disabilities. WAEC confirmed that all received necessary support during the exams.
On gender performance, females outshone males in the results. Out of the 754,545 who achieved the benchmark of five credits including English and Maths, females accounted for 53.99% (407,353), while males made up 46.01% (347,192).
This year also saw the introduction of a computer-based testing (CBT) option alongside the traditional paper-and-pencil format, part of WAEC’s plan to fully digitise the examination process by 2026.
“This year’s exam placed us as a foremost examining body to have conducted an achievement test using a computer-based format,” Dangut noted.
The results were officially released on Monday via WAEC’s X handle, with candidates advised to check theirs through http://waecdirect.org.
