The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Thursday said it is currently reviewing the recently released results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates, after it discovered technical issues in the results.
The technical errors which inadvertently negatively affects candidates affected Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics.
WAEC said the glitch was linked to a new security feature known as paper serializatio, which was deployed in these key subjects as part of its anti-exam malpractice strategy.
In a statement by its Spokesperson, Moyosola Adesina, WAEC said the technical issues were discovered during an internal review of the results released on Monday.
The examination body has, therefore, temporarily restricted access to the result checker pending the conclusion of the review.
“On this note, candidates who have previously checked their results are advised to re-check after 24 hours from now,” the body said.
Part of its statement read: “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.
“As part of our efforts to curb examination malpractice, the Council embarked on an innovation (paper serialization) already deployed by a national examination body. It is also worth noting that this is in line with best practices in assessment. The paper serialization was carried out in Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics. However, an internal post result release procedure revealed some technical bugs in the results.”
WAEC has promised a swift resolution of the issue. To allow for this process, the result checker portal has been temporarily shut down, and students will be unable to access their results during this period.
“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 twenty-four (24) hours. On this note, candidates who have previously checked their results are advised to re-check after 24 hours from now.
WAEC remains committed to upholding excellence, fairness and transparency in all our assessment processes,” the statement said.
The West African regional body had officially released the 2025 WASSCE results for school candidates on Monday, August 4, 2025, with only 754,545 candidates, 38.32% of the approximately 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the examinations, achieving credits in five subjects, including English and Mathematics.
This was a 33.8% drop in performance compared to last year. Notably, 192,089 results were withheld due to suspected examination malpractice.
Just two days later, on Wednesday, August 6, WAEC shut down its result-checking portal, blaming it on technical glitches but assuring the public that the system would be restored within 24 hours.
