The West African Examinations Council has officially released results for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, revealing a significant 33.8% decline in overall performance compared to 2024.
At a press briefing in Lagos on Monday, WAEC’s Head of National Office Dr Amos Dangut announced only 38.32% of the 1.9 million candidates obtained five credits including English and Mathematics – down sharply from last year’s 72.12%. He attributed the drop to newly implemented anti-cheating measures that serialised objective test papers in core subjects.
“The dip in objective paper performance shows our new security measures worked. Candidates must now rely on actual preparation rather than collusion,” Dangut stated, noting essay results remained consistent with previous years.
Key result statistics show:
• 1,969,313 candidates sat the exam across 23,554 schools
• 754,545 achieved five credits including English/Maths
• 192,089 results (9.75%) withheld for malpractice
• Female candidates slightly outperformed males (53.99% vs 46.01%)
The examination body also revealed its transition toward full digital testing, with 2025 marking the first year candidates could choose computer-based options. WAEC plans complete digitisation of school candidate exams by 2026.
Candidates can check results via WAEC’s official portal at waecdirect.org, though 451,796 results remain pending due to technical issues expected to be resolved within days. The Council warned states owing examination fees would have sponsored candidates’ results withheld until payments are made.
WAEC’s tougher anti-fraud stance comes as education stakeholders debate the balance between examination integrity and student performance metrics in Nigeria’s evolving academic landscape.
