WAEC Releases 2025 WASSCE Results, Records Drop in Performance

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has officially released the results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.

In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, August 4, 2025, WAEC announced that candidates who sat for the exam can now access their results via its official portal.

“The West African Examinations Council is pleased to inform candidates who sat WASSCE for School Candidates, 2025 that the result has officially been released today, Monday, August 4, 2025,” the Council stated.

Candidates are advised to log on to http://waecdirect.org to check their results.

At a press briefing held at WAEC’s national headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, the Head of Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, described the 2025 examination as a “huge success,” despite logistical challenges. He, however, noted a significant drop in overall performance.

According to WAEC, 1,969,313 candidates sat for the exam across 23,554 schools. Of this number, 754,545 candidates secured at least five credits, including English and Mathematics — a 33.8% decline from the 72.12% recorded in 2024.

Dangut attributed the drop to WAEC’s adoption of serialized objective test papers in key subjects such as Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics.

“This approach drastically reduced the incidence of collusion and made examination malpractice more difficult.

We observed a dip in the performance of objective papers, but essay papers remained consistent with previous years. It’s a strong signal that candidates must rely on their own preparation,” he explained.

The examination ran from April 24 to June 20, 2025, while marking took place between July 3 and 21. WAEC deployed a real-time digital scoring system to improve speed and accuracy during result processing.

Out of the total candidates, 1,517,517 (77.06%) had their results fully released, while 451,796 (22.94%) are still being processed due to technical issues. Dangut assured the outstanding results would be cleared within days.

On malpractice, WAEC disclosed that 192,089 results (9.75%) were withheld over various infractions including the use of banned phones and candidate collusion. This marks a slight improvement compared to the 11.92% withheld in 2024.

Dangut also warned individuals operating rogue websites and aiding exam fraud to desist from such actions.

“These unscrupulous elements have become a thorn in the Council’s flesh. Some even use our name to distribute fake messages. We’ve apprehended some of them, and appropriate sanctions will be applied,” he said.

He further announced that state governments owing WAEC will not receive results for their sponsored candidates until all debts are paid.

The Council also revealed that 12,178 special needs candidates registered for the exam. These included 112 visually impaired, 615 with hearing difficulties, 52 with cognitive challenges, and 37 with physical disabilities. All received appropriate accommodations.

Gender statistics showed a near-even split: 976,787 male candidates (49.60%) and 992,526 females (50.40%). However, females slightly outperformed males among those who passed with at least five credits, including English and Mathematics — 53.99% (407,353) were female, and 46.01% (347,192) male.

The 2025 exam marked WAEC’s first large-scale deployment of Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for school candidates. Students were given the option of taking the exam traditionally or via CBT.

“This year’s exam placed us as a foremost examining body to have conducted an achievement test using a computer-based format,” Dangut noted.

He added that WAEC is planning a full transition to computer-based WASSCE by 2026, similar to the format already used in the CB-WASSCE for private candidates.