The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, describing the overall conduct of the examination as a “huge success”.
Dr Amos Dangut, the Head of the Nigeria National Office of WAEC, said at a press briefing held at the Council’s national headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, on Monday, August 4, that it was a “huge success despite logistical and operational challenges.”
Persecondnews reports that the examination body, in a statement issued through X on Monday, August 4, directed candidates who sat for the exam to visit the Council’s result portal, ( https://waecdirect.org ), to check their performance.
Dangut said 38.32% of candidates obtained credits and above in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
“A total of 1,969,313 candidates sat the examination across 23,554 schools, out of which 754,545 candidates obtained a minimum of five credits including English and Mathematics — a sharp 33.8% drop from the 72.12% recorded in 2024,” he said.
He attributed the decline in performance largely to the Council’s new strategy of serialising objective test papers in core subjects like Mathematics, English, 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 is a strong signal that candidates must rely on their own preparation,” he said.
Persecondnews reports that the examination was held between April 24 and June 20, 2025, with coordination and marking carried out from July 3 to 21.
WAEC deployed a real-time digital scoring system during the marking phase to ensure faster and more accurate result processing.
Of the total candidates, 1,517,517 (77.06%) had their results fully released, while 451,796 (22.94 %) had some subjects still being processed due to technical issues, which Dangut assured would be resolved in a few days.
On examination malpractice, 192,089 results, representing 9.75% of total candidates, are being withheld for various offenses, including the use of banned mobile phones and collusion. This marks a slight improvement from the 11.92% withheld in 2024.
WAEC warned rogue website operators and some compromised supervisors to desist from aiding examination fraud.
“These unscrupulous elements have become a thorn in the Council’s flesh. “Some even use our name to distribute fake messages. We have apprehended some of them, and appropriate sanctions will be applied,” Dangut said.
He also announced that states owing the Council would not have access to the results of their sponsored candidates until their debts are settled.
WAEC noted that 12,178 candidates with special needs registered for the examination.
Among them, 112 were visually impaired, 615 had hearing challenges, 52 were spastic or mentally challenged, and 37 had physical disabilities. All were provided with adequate support.
In terms of gender distribution, 976,787 were male (49.60%) while 992,526 were female (50.40%).
Among the candidates who obtained five credits including English and Maths, females slightly outperformed males: 53.99%(407,353) of the successful candidates were female, while 46.01%(347,192) were male.
The 2025 WASSCE for school candidates marked the beginning of WAEC’s transition to Computer-Based Testing. Candidates were allowed to choose between the traditional paper-and-pencil format or a CBT version.
“This year’s exam placed us as a foremost examining body to have conducted an achievement test using a computer-based format,” Dangut noted.
He revealed that WAEC was preparing to fully digitise the exam process for school candidates by 2026, following a similar pattern adopted in the ongoing CB-WASSCE for private candidates second series.
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