The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has admitted to a grading error in the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, citing a technical fault in its new paper serialisation system.
The error, which affected the English Language objective paper, was traced to a wrong serialised code file used during the printing of the paper, causing candidates’ answers to be marked against incorrect answer keys.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos, WAEC’s Head of National Office (HNO), Dr. Amos Dangut, explained that the issue was uncovered during an internal post-examination review.
“This regrettable situation contributed to the earlier observed drop in performance. However, we have now resolved the issue, and candidates can access their accurate results via the official portal: www.waecdirect.org,” he said.
According to WAEC, candidates from schools that used the computer-based examination mode were not affected by the error.
Out of 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the 2025 WASSCE, 1,794,821 (91.14%) obtained credits and above in at least five subjects (with or without English and Mathematics), while 1,239,884 (62.96%) obtained five credits including English and Mathematics.
Female candidates outperformed their male counterparts, with 53.05% of successful candidates in the key benchmark category being female, compared to 46.95% male. However, this marks a 9.16% decline from 2024, when 72.12% achieved the same standard.
WAEC confirmed that results for 1,763,470 candidates (89.55%) have been fully processed and released, while 205,916 candidates (10.45%) still have pending results due to unresolved issues, expected to be cleared within days.
The Council catered to 12,178 special needs candidates including visually and hearing impaired, mentally and physically challenged whose results have been released.
Meanwhile, the results of 191,053 candidates (9.7%) are being withheld over allegations of examination malpractice, slightly down from 11.92% in 2024. Investigations are ongoing, with affected candidates invited to seek redress via https://waecinternational.org/complaints.
Dr. Dangut urged candidates to apply for their digital certificates, available within 48 hours after checking their results online, while hard copies will be ready within 90 days for those whose results are fully processed.
He also noted that results of candidates from schools sponsored by indebted state governments will remain withheld until debts are cleared.
“This is very difficult for us to say, but we have to admit that it is very embarrassing. 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,” the WAEC boss said.
The 9am News report confirms that corrected results have now been uploaded, and candidates can check theirs within the next 12 hours using the PIN and serial number on their WAEC Smart Identity cards.
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