Education stakeholders, including educationists and parents, have lamented the poor performance of students in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
The results released on Monday showed that out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the examination, only 754,545 candidates, representing 38.32 per cent, obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Recall that during the 2025 exam, some schools used the Computer Based Test method while others opted for the Paper Based Test method.
Head of Nigeria’s Office (HNO) of WAEC, Amos Dangut, while announcing the release of the results in Lagos, said that this year’s result showed a 33.8 per cent decrease in performance compared to 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.
He disclosed that results of 192,089 candidates were withheld over various reported cases of malpractice.
“The examination was also administered to candidates from some schools in Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian curriculum for senior secondary schools is being used.
“I also wish to report that a total of 12,178 candidates with varying degrees of special needs registered for the examination.
“Out of this number, 112 were visually challenged, 615 had impaired hearing, 52 were spastic cum mentally challenged, and 37 were physically challenged.
“All these candidates were adequately provided for in the administration of the examination,” the WAEC top official said.
“Of the total number of 1,969,313 candidates that sat for the examination, 976,787 were males while 992,526 were females, representing 49.60 per cent and 50.40 per cent, respectively.
“Out of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination in Nigeria, 1,517,517 candidates, representing 77.06 per cent, have their results fully processed and released while 451,796 candidates, representing 22.94 per cent, have one or more of their subjects still being processed due to some issues to be resolved.
“Efforts are, however, being made to speedily complete the processes to enhance the release of the affected candidates’ results within a couple of days,” he said.
The 38.32 per cent performance for this year is the worst performance in years, with more findings showing that the result is the poorest compared to those recorded since 2020.
In 2020, WAEC said that 1,003,668 candidates, representing 65.24 per cent out of 1,601,047 who sat for the exams, obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
The following year, 2021, saw an improvement of 81.7 per cent pass rate recorded, translating to 16 per cent while it reduced to 76.36 per cent in 2022, representing more than 5 per cent decline in performance.
In 2023, the examination body recorded 79.81 per cent pass rate including those who made English and Mathematics papers while the pass rate reduced to 72.12 in 2024.
The examination’s body attributed the low record in pass rate to Computer Based Test (CBT) and serialisation approach, describing them as the innovative method to tackle examination malpractice.
The Head of Nigeria’s Office (HNO) of WAEC, Amos Dangut stressed that the serialisation approach deployed in the objective test question papers for Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics exposed candidates copying from each other, a development which contributed to failure in those subjects.
The immediate past Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Monday Ubamgha, said decline in proper study time and poor quality of teachers were responsible for the low pass rate this year.
Also speaking, Dr. Nelson Ayodele, an educationist, attributed the poor performance to the introduction of CBT.
“The renewed effort of the examination bodies to curb malpractice and a change in examination procedures caught many schools unawares. They found it difficult to circumvent the new procedures as they were used to doing in the past,” he said.
