WAEC, put your house in order

Four days after the West African Examination Council (WAEC) released results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) that was adjudged to be the worst in five years, the regional examination body on Friday August 8, 2025 again released a reviewed version of the results for the same examination. The initial result […]

Four days after the West African Examination Council (WAEC) released results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) that was adjudged to be the worst in five years, the regional examination body on Friday August 8, 2025 again released a reviewed version of the results for the same examination.

The initial result released on Monday August 4, 2025 indicated that only 754,545 candidates representing 38.32 per cent of the 1,969,313 that sat for the examination obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. WAEC authorities attributed the low success rate recorded in the initial result to the use of Computer Based Test (CBT) and serialisation approach; describing them as the innovative methods for tackling examination malpractice.

While educationists, parents, and other stakeholders were still discussing the possible causes of the abysmal performance of candidates in the 2025 examination, WAEC authorities announced the release of a corrected result that showed an upgrade to about 63 per cent. WAEC attributed their action to “technical glitches” encountered in the four subjects conducted with a paper serialisation approach, which, according to the examination body, was basically intended to curb examination malpractice.

The Head of Nigeria’s Office of WAEC, Amos Dangut, stressed that the serialisation approach deployed in the objective test question papers for Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics exposed candidates copying from each other; a development which he said contributed to failure in those subjects. “Under this approach, each candidate was assigned a specific paper type, making collusion and other forms of examination malpractice extremely difficult to perpetrate,” he explained.

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But even with the reviewed version of the result that raised the percentage of the success rate from 38.32 per cent to 62.96 per cent, one disappointing fact that remains obvious is how the revised result yet falls short of the 2024 success rate in which 72 per cent of candidates obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics; indicating more than 10 per cent decline.

The drop in the success rate for the 2025 WASSCE still remains a valid reason to not only fault the poor performance of candidates but also lament the state of secondary education in Nigeria where state governments own the largest chunk of secondary schools in the country. Of the almost 30,000 secondary schools (2019 figure) in the country, only 115 known as federal unity colleges are owned by the federal government. The more state governments fail to go beyond paying lip services to this level of education, the poorer WASSCE results would continue to get.

The assertion by WAEC that ‘technical glitches’ prompted a review of the initial result is self-indicting, which as an examination body that built its reputation over decades, should never have come from it. The review shouldn’t have been an option for remedying the technical glitches that led to poor performance. The action is a sad and embarrassing development to stakeholders in the education sector. Yet, no apology has come from WAEC.

Whereas technology comes with its challenges, it is bad enough for an examination body that existed for over 70 years to complain of technical hitches when the regional examination body had one full year to prepare for such examinations, and thus, had sufficient time to plan for the administration of the test items including the ICT tools that would be deployed to administer the examination.

The untidy process that led to the cancellation of the English Language paper after it had leaked; consequently, prompting its re-administration reveals how WAEC is losing the high integrity which once defined its results when it was the only examining body for all terminal examinations at primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, including the national common entrance, teachers grade II, and the general certificate of education (ordinary and advanced levels). The current backsliding is a strong reason for the Nigerians to lose confidence in the reliability of its results.

Experts in test administration have identified the use of CBT particularly in rural schools, where digital literacy is minimal, to be a factor that plausibly contributed to the poor performance in the 2025 WASSCE. A situation where some secondary school principals themselves cannot start or log into desktop computers validates this argument. It would be recalled that while some schools opted for the CBT mode of exam, others chose the Paper Based Test method for the 2025 WASSCE.

Although CBT remains the best global practice in test administration, schools should not rush or be rushed by WAEC especially for candidates sitting in front of a computer for the first time. The results of such candidates in a CBT are better imagined. While we encourage state governments to equip schools with ICT facilities that will raise students’ computer literacy level, Daily Trust advises WAEC to realistically phase the transition of schools from PBT to CBT mode without putting candidates at disadvantage.

Meanwhile, we call for a probe of the entire process of the 2025 WASSCE; urging WAEC to put its house in order by showing firm commitment to excellence and transparency in all its test administration procedures. The report of the probe should be made public.