Hot SourceFunmi Ogundare
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), yesterday, admitted a grading error in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.
The examination body attributed the error to a technical fault in its new paper serialisation system, which affected the English Language objective paper.
The Council has since corrected the anomaly and released revised results.
The Head of National Office (HNO), Dr. Amos Dangut, who briefed journalists in Lagos, explained that the issue arose when a wrong serialised code file was used during the printing of the English Language paper three (objective), causing candidates’ answers to be scored using incorrect answer keys. The error, he noted, was discovered during its internal post-examination review.
“This regrettable situation contributed to the earlier observed drop in performance,” Dangut stated.
“However, we have now resolved the issue, and candidates can access their accurate results via the official portal: www.waecdirect.org.”
Importantly, schools that took the exam using the computer-based mode, he said, were unaffected by the scoring error.
Dangut, explained that out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the 2025 WASSCE, 1,794,821 representing 91.14 per cent, obtained credit and above in at least five subjects (with or without English and Mathematics), while 1,239,884 candidates representing 62.96 per cent obtained five credits including English Language and Mathematics.
“Female candidates outperformed their male counterparts in the key benchmark, 53. 05 per cent of successful candidates in this category were female, while males accounted for 46.95 per cent,” he said.
The HNO, however, noted a 9.16 per cent decline in this performance metric compared to 2024, when 72.12 per cent of candidates achieved credit in five subjects, including English and Mathematics.
He said the results of 1,763,470 candidates representing 89.55 per cent have been fully processed and released, while the remaining 205,916 candidates representing 10.45 per cent have pending results due to unresolved issues.
He assured that the issues would be finalised within a few days.
The council, Dangut noted, also catered to 12,178 candidates with special needs, including the visually and hearing impaired, mentally and physically challenged.
“Their results have also been released,” he added.
The council, he said, was withholding the results of 191,053 candidates representing 9.7 per cent over allegations of examination malpractice, adding that there is a slight decrease from the 11.92 per cent recorded in 2024.
“Investigations are ongoing, and final decisions will be communicated to candidates through their schools. Affected candidates have been invited to seek redress via https://waecinternational.org/complaints,” he said.
The HNO stated that the council has commenced uploading the corrected results of candidates who have fulfilled their financial obligations, adding that they could check their results within the next 12 hours via its official portal: www.waecdirect.org.
He urged candidates to apply for their digital certificates, which will be available 48 hours after checking their results online.
“Hard copies of certificates will be ready within 90 days for candidates whose results have been fully processed,” he said.
He emphasised that the results of candidates sponsored by indebted state governments would remain withheld until the outstanding debts are settled, while appealing to the affected state governments to act promptly so that candidates from those schools can access their results without further delay.
“Candidates are reminded that the result checker PIN and serial number, required to access their results, are printed on the Smart Identity cards they used during the examination. Additionally, new Result listings will be sent to schools shortly for official records,” Dangut said.
He, however, apologised to candidates, parents, teachers, ministries, and all stakeholders affected by the earlier grading discrepancies.
“This is very difficult for us to say, but we have to admit that it is very embarrassing,” he said. “We acknowledge the emotional ordeal everyone has gone through. It’s a trying time for us at WAEC, and we are doing everything we can to ensure such a dismal situation does not recur,” he added.
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