WAEC Corrects 2025 WASSCE Results After Grading Error

Fresh results show big jump in pass rate

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has issued a new set of results for the 2025 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination, admitting it made a serious grading error the first time.

In the earlier release, only 38.32% of the 1,969,313 candidates were said to have earned credits in at least five core subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. Now, WAEC says the real figure is 62.96%. That is a major leap and a relief for many students who had been left confused and worried.

How the error happened

At a press briefing in Yaba, WAEC Nigeria's Head of National Office, Dr Amos Dangut, explained that the mix-up came from a technical glitch in marking. A special code file used for serialised question papers was wrongly applied in printing the English Language Objective Tests. This meant those scripts were scored with the wrong answer keys.

According to him, schools that took the computer-based version were not affected. The mistake mostly hit those who sat for the paper format. WAEC discovered the problem during an internal review of the earlier results and further checks confirmed the error in some key subjects like Mathematics, Biology and Economics as well.

The new numbers

With the corrected grading, 1,239,884 candidates have now secured credits in at least five subjects, including English and Mathematics. Of these, 582,065 are male (46.95%) and 657,819 are female (53.05%).

Compared to the same exam last year, the 2025 pass rate is down by 9.16% from 72.12% in 2024.

Meanwhile, 191,053 results remain withheld over suspected exam malpractice. These represent 9.75% of the total candidates, which is lower than the 11.92% recorded in the past two years. WAEC is still investigating these cases to decide if the results will be released or cancelled.

Apology and next steps

Dr Dangut offered a formal apology, admitting the grading blunder was "huge and embarrassing". He acknowledged the stress it caused students, parents and schools. In his words, the Council "deeply regrets" the trouble.

He assured the public that WAEC has fixed the fault and promised tighter checks to stop such an error from happening again. Candidates can now check their updated WAEC results online with the regular process.

It is one thing to make a mistake, quite another to admit it openly. For WAEC, this misstep is a sobering reminder that even big organisations must double-check their work. After all, these results are not just numbers, they shape young people's futures. And as we say here, "no be small thing."

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This post is authored by Olusegun Fapohunda, the founder and editor of MySchoolGist.

Boasting over a decade of expertise in the education sector, Olusegun offers current insights into educational trends, career opportunities and the latest news.

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