The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has recalled the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results released earlier this week, citing technical issues that affected key subjects.
In a statement issued by the Acting Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, the examination body explained that it discovered glitches during an internal review of the results and has since shut down access to its result checker portal.
The affected subjects, according to WAEC, include Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics, all of which were subjected to a newly introduced paper serialisation system aimed at curbing examination malpractice.
“The West African Examinations Council sincerely regrets to inform the general public of technical issues discovered during the internal review of the recently released results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates,” the statement read.
WAEC noted that the serialisation method was adapted from an innovation already in use by another national examination body and is aligned with global best practices in assessments. However, technical bugs emerged in the results compiled for the four serialised subjects, prompting the need for an urgent review and correction.
“As a result, access to the WASSCE (SC) 2025 results has been temporarily denied on the result checker portal,” the statement added.
Candidates who had already checked their results have been advised to disregard them and recheck the portal within 24 hours for updated versions.
WAEC had initially released the results on Monday, revealing a concerning performance rate: only 38.32 per cent of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the exam obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Observers had earlier linked the poor performance to logistical issues that marred the conduct of the examination in May, during which students were reportedly kept at exam centres late into the night.
Speaking at a press briefing, WAEC’s Head of Nigeria Office, Amos Dangut, confirmed that just 754,545 candidates achieved the benchmark performance.
The situation mirrors a similar occurrence with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) earlier in the year, when it faced technical setbacks following the release of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.
