WASSCE 2025: Only 38.32% Secure Five Credits Including English, Mathematics — WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced a significant drop in performance for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates, with only 38.32 per cent securing a minimum of five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.

Releasing the results on Monday, August 4, at the Council’s national headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, WAEC’s Head of Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, said just 754,545 out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat the exam across 23,554 schools achieved the benchmark. This marks a sharp decline of 33.8 percentage points from the 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.

Dr. Dangut attributed the drop to WAEC’s newly adopted strategy of serialising objective test papers in core subjects like English, Mathematics, Biology, and Economics — a move aimed at curbing exam malpractice.

“This strategy significantly reduced collusion and made cheating more difficult. While there was a noticeable drop in performance on the objective components, essay scores remained consistent. It’s a clear sign that students must prepare better,” he stated.

The examination took place between April 24 and June 20, 2025, with coordination and marking conducted from July 3 to 21. WAEC also employed a real-time digital scoring system to speed up and improve the accuracy of result processing.

So far, 1,517,517 candidates (77.06%) have had their results fully processed and released, while 451,796 (22.94%) are still being processed due to technical issues, which the Council promised would be resolved shortly.

Regarding examination malpractice, 192,089 results — representing 9.75 per cent — are currently being withheld over infractions such as the use of prohibited mobile phones and collusion. This figure reflects a slight improvement from the 11.92 per cent withheld in 2024.

“These bad actors have become a serious concern. Some even impersonate WAEC to spread misinformation. We’ve apprehended some offenders, and sanctions will follow,” Dangut warned.

He further noted that states yet to settle their debts to WAEC will be denied access to the results of their sponsored candidates until payments are made.

This year, 12,178 candidates with special needs registered for the exam. These included 112 visually impaired, 615 with hearing difficulties, 52 with mental challenges, and 37 with physical disabilities. WAEC confirmed that all were provided the necessary support.

In terms of gender distribution, 976,787 candidates (49.60%) were male, while 992,526 (50.40%) were female. Among the 754,545 who passed with five credits including English and Maths, girls outperformed boys — making up 53.99 per cent (407,353) compared to 46.01 per cent (347,192).

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The 2025 WASSCE also marked a milestone as candidates were given the choice between the traditional paper-based test and a computer-based test (CBT) — part of WAEC’s broader digitisation efforts, expected to be fully rolled out by 2026.

“This year’s exam positions WAEC as a leading assessment body globally, having successfully conducted an achievement test using the CBT format,” Dangut said.

The results were published on Monday via WAEC’s official X handle. Candidates can check their scores by visiting the portal