By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has attributed the sharp drop in the 2025 WASSCE performance to stricter anti-malpractice measures.
Announcing the results in Lagos on Monday, WAEC’s Head of National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, said only 38.32% of the 1.97 million candidates obtained credits in five subjects including English and Mathematics; a 33.8% drop from the 72.12% recorded in 2024.
He said new protocols, such as the serialisation of objective papers, made cheating and collusion more difficult, resulting in a more realistic performance level.
A total of 1,517,517 results (77.06%), have been released, while 451,796 are still being processed. WAEC is also withholding the results of 192,089 candidates (9.75%), over suspected malpractice.
Female candidates slightly outperformed males in the five-credit benchmark, with 53.99% compared to 46.01%.
WAEC reaffirmed plans to adopt Computer-Based Testing (CBT), fully by 2026. This year, students used either pen-and-paper or a hybrid CBT format.
It also warned that candidates from states owing exam fees will not be able to access their results until debts are cleared.
As part of its digital reforms, WAEC introduced AI-powered revision tools, digital scoring systems, and e-certificates accessible within 48 hours of result release.
