The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.
Announcing the release on Monday, August 4, via its official X handle, WAEC confirmed that candidates can now access their results through its online portal, waecdirect.org.
At a briefing in Lagos, the Head of the Nigeria National Office of WAEC, Dr. Amos Dangut, described the examination exercise as successful but acknowledged the noticeable drop in performance levels.
Performance Outcome
Out of 1,969,313 candidates drawn from 23,554 schools, only 754,545 secured a minimum of five credits, including English Language and Mathematics. This translates to 38.32% of the total candidates — a decline from the 72.12% recorded in 2024.
Dangut explained that the new system of serialising objective questions in major subjects such as Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics largely accounted for the drop.
According to him, the method drastically limited collusion, reducing malpractice but impacting results.
Result Processing and Malpractice Cases
A total of 1,517,517 candidates had their results released in full, while 451,796 candidates are awaiting the release of some subjects due to technical delays. WAEC assured that the pending results would be finalised shortly.
Meanwhile, 192,089 results — representing 9.75% of candidates — are being withheld for involvement in examination misconduct, including the use of banned mobile devices and collusion. This marks a marginal improvement compared with the 11.92% withheld in 2024.
Special Needs and Gender Balance
WAEC confirmed that 12,178 candidates with special needs participated in the 2025 examination. They included 112 visually impaired candidates, 615 with hearing difficulties, and 89 with other disabilities.
Gender participation was evenly balanced, with 976,787 males and 992,526 females. Females slightly outperformed males in the key benchmark of five credits, including English and Mathematics, accounting for 53.99% of the successful candidates.
Shift to Computer-Based Testing
For the first time, candidates were allowed to choose between the traditional paper-based format and a Computer-Based Testing (CBT) option.
WAEC noted that the 2025 WASSCE is the start of its full digital transition with complete migration to CBT scheduled for 2026.
Council’s Warning and Debt Notice
Dangut warned against fraudulent websites and compromised supervisors attempting to manipulate the process, noting that some offenders had already been apprehended.
He also disclosed that states indebted to WAEC would be denied access to the results of their sponsored candidates until all outstanding obligations were cleared.