WAEC Addresses Errors in 2025 SSCE Results
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has confirmed that it has corrected errors in the results of the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), leading to a notable increase in the number of candidates who achieved credit passes in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. The revised results were made public on Friday, August 8, 2025, following an admission of a serious error in the marking process.
Dr. Amos Dangut, the Registrar of WAEC Nigeria, expressed deep regret over the discrepancies found in the grading of serialised papers. He stated that the council had deployed a new security innovation known as paper serialisation, which is also used by other national examination bodies. However, during post-examination reviews, it was discovered that the English Language Objective Test (Paper 3) was scored using incorrect keys due to a wrongly assigned serialised code file. Other subjects affected included Mathematics, Biology, and Economics.
Dangut explained that the issue arose from the use of an incorrect serialised code file during the printing of the English Language Objective paper. This resulted in some candidates being marked with incorrect answer keys. It is important to note that candidates who took the exams via the computer-based mode were not impacted by this error.
Significant Improvement in Pass Rates
Following the correction, 1,794,821 candidates, representing 91.14%, obtained credit and above in at least five subjects, with or without English and Mathematics. A detailed breakdown showed that 1,239,884 candidates, or 62.96%, scored five credits, including English and Mathematics—a significant improvement from the previously reported 38.32%. Of this number, 657,819 (53.05%) were female, while 582,065 (46.95%) were male candidates. However, the results still reflect a drop of 9.16% compared to the 72.12% performance recorded in 2024.
A total of 1,969,313 candidates sat for the examination, including those from schools in the Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea, which follow the Nigerian curriculum. The new figure represents a substantial improvement in the pass rate compared to the previously announced result, which indicated that 754,545 or 38.32% of the candidates met the benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions.
Ongoing Efforts to Process Results
WAEC confirmed that 1,763,470 candidates (89.55%) have had their results fully processed, while 205,916 (10.45%) still have one or more subjects pending due to technical issues. The council assured the public that all efforts are underway to conclude processing and release outstanding results shortly.
Additionally, WAEC has withheld the results of 191,053 candidates (9.7%) due to allegations of examination malpractice. This figure is lower than the 11.92% recorded in 2024. The Council emphasized that investigations are ongoing and urged affected candidates to seek redress through waecinternational.org/complaints.
“WAEC will continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice. All hands must be on deck to sanitise the system,” Dangut stated. The council remains committed to maintaining the integrity of its examinations and ensuring fair outcomes for all candidates.