WAEC Announces Withdrawal of 2025 WASSCE Results Due to Error

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has retracted the results it initially published on Monday, August 4.

In a statement issued on Thursday and signed by its Acting Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, WAEC disclosed that it had uncovered technical errors in the process that produced the initial results. Consequently, the result checker portal has been temporarily disabled.

According to the statement, the error affected four core subjects—Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics—where WAEC had introduced a new method known as “paper serialisation.” This innovation, adapted from an existing national examination system, was intended to curb examination malpractice. However, after releasing the results, internal checks revealed bugs that compromised their accuracy.

“The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) 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 (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC) 2025,” the statement reads.

WAEC has now directed all candidates who previously accessed their results to disregard them and check again after 24 hours for the corrected versions. The council assured the public that the issue is being addressed swiftly and transparently.

“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,” it added.

Prior to the recall, WAEC had announced that only 754,545 out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat the 2025 examination—representing 38.32 per cent—achieved credit-level passes in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. This outcome, considered below expectations, raised concerns given its direct impact on university admission eligibility.

The examination body revealed that 1,973,365 candidates registered across 23,554 secondary schools, while 1,969,313 eventually sat for the exams. Of those who met the minimum five-credit benchmark, including English and Mathematics, 46.01 per cent were male, and 53.99 per cent were female.

Many have attributed the widespread poor performance to logistical setbacks during the May exam period, when some candidates were reportedly kept at exam centres late into the night due to delays.