Glitched grades: WAEC in crisis over result errors

• Candidates urged to re-check new results after 48 hours, students protest, parents slam CBT plans

There was outrage after the West African Examinations Council denied candidates access to its results portal for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for School Candidates following technical glitches.

A statement by the Head of Public Affairs, WAEC National Office, Moyosola Adesina, revealed that the Council identified bugs in its result system following a post-release review of the 2025 WASSCE results, which led to the access denial.

The Council said access to the result checker portal had been temporarily suspended, urging candidates who had previously checked their results to re-check from Friday for the updated versions.

While defending its serialisation method for Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics, WAEC admitted that the post-release quality checks exposed technical glitches in its backend systems.

The statement read in part, “The West African Examinations Council sincerely regrets to inform the general public of technical issues discovered during the internal review of the recently released results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination for School Candidates, 2025.

“As part of our efforts to curb malpractice, the Council embarked on an innovation—paper serialisation—already deployed by a national examination body. It is worth noting that this is in line with best assessment practices. The paper serialisation was carried out in Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics. However, an internal post-release procedure revealed some technical bugs in the results.

“The Council, being a responsive body that is sensitive to fairness and professionalism, has decided to urgently review and correct the technical glitches that led to the situation. As a result, access to the WASSCE SC 2025 results has been temporarily denied on the result checker portal.

“We extend our deep and sincere apologies to all affected candidates and the general public. We appreciate their patience and understanding as we work diligently to resolve this matter with transparency and urgency within the next 24 hours. On this note, candidates who have previously checked their results are advised to re-check after 24 hours from now.”

Thursday’s clarification came less than 24 hours after WAEC, via its official X handle, declared a temporary shutdown of its result portal, citing “technical issues.”

The Council has been under intense scrutiny since Monday, when the Head of National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, revealed that only 38.32 per cent of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat the 2025 WASSCE obtained credits and above in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

The figure, the worst in a decade, sparked widespread concerns among stakeholders about the state of education, increasing exam malpractice, and readiness for a full digital transition in the conduct of national examinations.

Among those who reacted to Thursday’s development were the Nigeria Union of Teachers, the National Association of Parent-Teacher Associations of Nigeria, and the National Association of Nigerian Students.

Speaking, the National President of NAPTAN, Haruna Danjuma, said while it was commendable that WAEC accepted responsibility, he described the planned transition to full Computer-Based Testing for external exams as impracticable.

“It is good for whoever made a mistake to acknowledge it. But this idea of moving WASSCE and NECO entirely to CBT is unrealistic,” Danjuma said.

He stressed that there were two major challenges: inadequate infrastructure and poor computer literacy levels among pupils.

“If truly we want our children to succeed in CBT, let the government at all levels provide computers in schools and ensure students become computer-literate.

“Right now, about 80 to 90 per cent of students, especially in rural areas, are not computer literate. If WAEC and NECO are going CBT in 2026, let governors start equipping schools now, maybe begin with SS2. That way, we can start seeing changes.”

However, the National Association of Nigerian Students came down hard on WAEC, accusing it of incompetence.

NANS Assistant General Secretary, Adejuwon Olatunji, faulted WAEC for failing to thoroughly test its systems before release, saying the situation had caused unnecessary psychological distress for candidates and parents.

“This incident is not just regrettable; it is a clear sign that the leadership of WAEC has failed,” Olatunji said.

Nigerians on social media also said they patiently awaited the miracle that WAEC intended to come up with in 24 hours.

SeyiB, @SaintSeyiB wrote, “I’m curious about how they intend to justify the 24-hour ‘miracle’ of grade changes. Many parents will likely demand a review of their children’s scripts. Whatever you’re working on, ensure it’s done correctly, or you could face a year of lawsuits. Parents are upset… And not everyone would smile at any crocodile tears on national television.”

Tweeting at @peculiarpat1, PATO PATO slammed WAEC for failing to conduct its reviews and due diligence before announcing the release of the result.

He wrote, “The question is, why the haste to release results? Shouldn’t all the reviews take place before results are released? JAMB did theirs and now WAEC. If people didn’t complain, would there have been any review? Why is it that institutions often compound people’s challenges in our climate? Do all the reviews and due diligence before releasing results. There is no gain in giving our young ones unnecessary heartaches!!”

Similarly, Dum Spiro Spero, @Inv_Dos wrote, “When you marked the scripts and saw massive failure in English, were you not supposed to review it first before releasing it to the public? Bunch of incompetent officials.”

Carpe Diem, @esoonet, said officials found culpable for the glitches should be sacked.

He wrote, “If no one is held accountable, if there are no resignations by Monday, then President Bola Tinubu is not ready to hold these incompetent people strongly before they kill his dream for him.”