WAEC Corrects 2025 SSCE Results, Announces 63% Pass Rate

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has admitted to errors in the results of this year’s Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and released corrected figures showing a significant improvement in candidates’ performance.

According to the revised data, 1,239,884 candidates — representing 62.96% of the 1,969,313 who sat for the exam — obtained credit passes in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. This marks a substantial increase from the 754,545 candidates, or 38.32%, initially announced earlier in the week.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Friday, WAEC’s Head of National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, admitted lapses in the grading of certain serialised objective papers, particularly English Language Paper 3. He explained that the error was due to the use of a wrong serialised code file, which led to the affected scripts being scored with incorrect answer keys.

The issue, which did not affect schools using the computer-based mode, partly accounted for the sharp drop in the performance figures initially released.

“With deep regret, we apologise to candidates, parents, schools, and all stakeholders for the emotional and mental distress this has caused,” Dangut said. “The anomaly has been fixed, and candidates can now access their updated results on www.waecdirect.org.”

He noted that of the candidates with five credits, including English and Mathematics, 582,065 (46.95%) were male, while 657,819 (53.05%) were female. However, he pointed out that the new pass rate still reflects a 9.16% drop compared to last year’s performance, when 72.12% achieved similar results.

WAEC urged all candidates to recheck their results and apply for their digital certificates, which will be available within 48 hours of result confirmation. Updated result listings will also be sent to schools shortly.

Dr. Dangut declined to comment on disciplinary measures for those responsible for the mix-up but stressed that the Council was taking steps to prevent a recurrence.

The initial results had sparked widespread outrage, with many parents and candidates questioning why students who excelled in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) performed poorly in WAEC’s English Language paper. In one case, a candidate who scored 368 in UTME and had distinctions in eight WAEC subjects was marked as having failed English Language — a situation that fuelled calls for a review.

Earlier this year, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had faced similar scrutiny after technical glitches forced some UTME candidates to rewrite their exams.