Many Nigerians are not happy with the West African Examination Council (WAEC). They are crossed with the body, over the English Language result, it released on Monday, August 4.

The result has set the country buzzing, just as it left stakeholders reeling and raving. Till now, concerned citizens have been expressing outrage and questioning the integrity of WAEC’s handling of its English Language paper and the result pushed out.

But WAEC on Thursday came out to announce a comprehensive review of its 2025 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) conduct. This came on the heels of outrage expressed by livid stakeholders – parents, students and teachers among others – insisting that something sinister certainly happened leading to the mass failure of candidates that was seen.

What WAEC earlier said happened

WAEC’s Head of the Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut on Monday revealed that 38.32 per cent of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for that examination obtained credits and above in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. That number, he noted, represents 754,545 of the candidates who wrote the said examination.

However, Dangut admitted a sharp 33.8 per cent drop in performance from the 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.

“We observed a dip in the performance of objective papers,” he said, “but essay papers remained consistent with previous years. It’s a strong signal that candidates must rely on their own preparation,” he warned.

While advancing reasons for the mass failure, the WAEC big man claimed that was largely because the Council deployed a new strategy, which serialised objective test papers in subjects like Mathematics, English, Biology as well as Economics.

He added: “This approach drastically reduced the incidence of collusion and made examination malpractice more difficult.”

He went on to outline other reasons he said let the candidates down such as over reliance on examination malpractice called “Expo” and AI, lack of qualified teachers in the school system, students’ laziness and poor study habits, weak foundational knowledge as well as parental and societal pressure.

Dangut did not stop there; he provided the way forward, marshalling out broad-based areas in the students’ educational life that needed urgent attention. He also prayed that all stakeholders needed to rebuild confidence in honest effort, arguing that teaching quality needed to be equally strengthened, while the right use of technology must be emphasised. He called for a need for early intervention and foundation building in the lives of the candidates, while stressing the need for reinforcement of moral and academic discipline. He contended that student mentorship and motivation are prerequisite for every candidate’s success.

WAEC backtracks, admits glitches

Stakeholders had disagreed with WAEC on what it said happened; and now, that position has been validated. WAEC had admitted “glitches” and “technical bugs in the results” it presented.

A statement issued by WAEC’s acting Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina further admitted that “technical issues were discovered during the internal review” of the examination. WAEC said that since it is “sensitive to fairness and professionalism,” it decided to urgently review and correct the technical glitches that led to the situation and as a result, the access to the WASSCE (SC) 2025 results has been temporarily denied on the result checker portal.”

WAEC sets confusion in motion

Despite its resolve to review the examination results, many stakeholders are not satisfied with what WAEC has made of its 2025 examinations. One of such is Chief Adeolu Ogubanjo, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NPTAN), who lamented the maze of confusion the examination body had brought to its affairs.

“Sincerely, what WAEC has done is confusing. You recall that JAMB also did the same thing. And now it is WAEC. What we are seeing is rather unfortunate. It is condemnable. “I don’t know why a whole WAEC that has been there long before NECO will come out to tell us that there were glitches in the conduct of its examination. That again is condemnable and inexcusable.

“Beyond that, now is the question: what are they really going to do? Are they going to remark the paper so that our children will not be adversely affected?

“We must bear in mind that many of the affected children are presenting these results to various institutions of their choice for admission.

“Now, we are saying this shouldn’t happen again. We don’t want to have a crying WAEC just like we had a crying JAMB the other time. We prefer them to do their due diligence before they release all their results.” He advised all the affected students to exercise patience. “They just have to wait for WAEC to come out with whatever they want to do.”

In the same vein, the Chairman of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Lagos State chapter, Akintoye Hassan, lamented what WAEC had made of its last examinations. “What is happening right now is not the best for WAEC and its image,” he said.

“What they have allowed to happen is going to impinge on the integrity of their examinations. It is not good for a body that has been there for this length of time.”

He was of the view that one of the things the body should do now on the road to self- redemption is to issue a public apology. “It needs to apologise to parents and candidates who have been traumatised all these days. That is the way to go,” he reasoned.

He commended everyone who put pressure on WAEC to ensure that the right thing was done. “Everyone who called out WAEC during this period did the right thing. If we did not speak out, we couldn’t have got them to do the needful.”

He ruled out rewriting the paper, stating that WAEC does not have the logistics to do so.

“We saw what they passed through the other time. Where would they get the money to pay their examiners and others expenses?

“It is good that they have accepted to review the results. I guess what they are going to do now is to be slightly generous with their marks. “If 55 per cent was a C in its last grading, it might raise that now to a B. By doing that, more and more students will pass.” He said what has been happening calls for introspection on the part of the government to support the National Examination Council (NECO). “We need to build our own,” he posited. “There is nothing wrong with doing so.”

WAEC results over the past years

Going down the memory lane, the statistics of candidates’ past performances in the same WAEC exams – even during the dreaded Covid-19 days, point in the opposite direction Dangut had headed. Those who saw what Dangut’s earlier position was had concluded that he was merely preaching to the choir.

“In 2016,” for instance, “52.97 per cent of candidates obtained credits in five subjects, including English and Math. The figure rose to 59.22 per cent in 2017 but fell to 50 percent in 2018. “In 2019, the number rose to 64.18 per cent, increasing further to 65.24 per cent in 2020.” It was further noted that in 2021, 81.7 per cent of the candidates obtained credit passes in five subjects, including English and Math. That figure dipped a little bit to 76.36 per cent in 2022 before rising again to 79.81 per cent in 2023. Then in 2024, the performance rate decreased a little, falling to 72.12 per cent.

Our pains, our fears

A man who wanted to be identified simply as Remi lamented that while some students performed excellently well in international examinations, they were credited with abysmal results by WAEC. “My neighbour’s son did excellently well in his Cambridge examination,” he informed. “His father said he made 83 per cent in the English language in that international examination. But he was credited with a pass in WASSCE.”

Remi said he joined other parents in asking WAEC what really changed overnight.

“Was the English marking scheme changed? Or the questions were too tough for the candidates to comprehend? Or the teachers suddenly did not teach well enough to trigger mass failure. “It is good they have now admitted that they had glitches in their system – same glitches that have become an albatross to our JAMB and INEC.” Indeed, people’s unwavering stance that something went wrong had turned out to be the currency that helped to see WAEC willing to review the English Language paper. Until WAEC did that, its feared role in the said mass failure of candidates had taken almost a life of its own. People had insisted that something went wrong, citing the chaotic manner the said English Language paper was conducted. They recalled how many candidates across the states wrote the paper in pitch darkness, using candle, phones and torchlights.

Chinedu, a candidate who wrote the English Language examination at a school in Ikotun area of Lagos State, said the exercise was gruesome; he was lucky to make C5 in the subject.

“We were to write the exam in the afternoon,” he recalled, with a sense of nostalgia as he spoke.

“While we gathered, we were told that the examiner was yet to arrive. So we waited till about 7:30pm when the man eventually showed up. The examination probably began at about 8pm.

“The school had to rally to power the centre. Yet the place was poorly lit. Some students, including me, had to rely on their cell phone torches to see properly. “The examination ended at about 9pm. About that time, many parents were already outside waiting and cursing, wondering what manner of examination we were writing.” Shortly after the results were released last Monday, a certain Alex, said to be the CEO of Educare, triggered the debate that began to question the credibility of the results. Onyia quoted on his social media handle asking: “How can only 38 per cent of students out of over 1.9 million that sat for WAEC score credit in English and Mathematics? Something is fundamentally wrong.” The moment the candidates began to check their results, emotions started to pour out. Both parents and candidates, who doubted the credibility of the English Language results, began to express strong emotions of anger and frustration.

A parent, Mr Igwe, told our correspondent that his daughter, Amarachi, who wrote the paper at a school in Anambra State, made four As and four Bs but was credited with E8 in English Language.

He recalled how he had to rush home to console his daughter after the girl checked her result and sent him an emotion-laden message. He said the content of the message clearly suggested that the girl could be contemplating suicide, recalling how a girl took her own life the other time after checking her JAMB score.

Here is the soul-stirring message straight from the heart of a girl broken on all sides: “Dad, I cannot believe I failed you. WASEC said I scored E8 in English Language. I cannot believe I made this result.

“I read day and night for that examination to make you proud but here I’m – still a loser.

“I wanted to show you that I’m better than my brother. “I locked myself sometimes in hidden places to make you and Mummy proud. I read so that I would pass well.

“But now, my English is not getting anywhere. My main subject! “Which school will accept me? “Dad, you said the world only accepts the best, yet I did not reach it. “Even though I made other papers, I cannot find space to rejoice. “Daddy, where do I begin saying I’m sorry; I failed you!”

Igwe added that he gathered from his daughter that it seemed no student in the girl’s school made a credit pass in English Language. “She has so far reached out to some of her colleagues to find out what their own results are. Everyone seemed to have made either E8 or F9 in English. What is going on?” he queried. Another parent, Mr Adegboyega, whose son also wrote the same English Language examination but at a school in Ikorodu, Lagos, said the boy’s performance appeared to be the best among his classmates.

“I hadn’t taken particular note of what was going on until my attention was drawn to it when my son checked his result. “He said he was the only one who made D7 in English Language in the whole school as far as he knew. All of his friends scored F9.

“I was struggling to understand that.

“The boy became distraught, refusing to believe that the result was his. “The mother kept consoling and letting him know that the failure was widespread but he would have none of that. “Now, it is good that WAEC has decided to do something about the candidates’ results – particularly the English Language paper which has become so controversial just like we had it with JAMB the other time. However, there was rejoicing in the tent of Mrs Ola, a resident of Abeokuta in Ogun State.

The woman was elated that her daughter made B3 in English Language. However, some of her friends were not as lucky. “My daughter made B3. I cannot thank God enough based on what I have been hearing,” she said over the telephone.

“There were 47 of them that wrote the examination in her school. Only half of that number has results. Others’ results were seized. Some have poor results particularly in English Language. Quite a number of the candidates I learnt could not make their core subjects. Could that be a deliberate act or what,” she wondered. Mrs Ola expressed happiness that something had to be done in the end to alleviate the pain of parents labouring to send their children to school in these hard times.

Private school proprietors kick

Speaking on national television during the week, the President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) Yomi Otubela, lamented the conditions under which the candidates in many areas were made to write the examination, suggesting that that might have led to the failure being noticed. He maintained that “the condition in which many children in some states wrote that examination particularly in darkness was not unacceptable.” He therefore contended that “the result did not reflect the ability of most of the children.” He, however, commended the candidates who in spite of the odds made good results. At the same time, he called on all stakeholders to rally round and find lasting solutions to the current problems bedevilling the education sector.

Poor English, Maths grade not real failure

While the rest of stakeholders bickered, NUT Lagos State chapter boss, Hassan, said the result presented by WAEC was a success, warning that failure in English and Maths could not be used to rubbish its performance in other subjects. Hassan contended that doing so was “disrespectful.” He said: “The criterion for the failure was based on English and Mathematics and not on any other subjects; that was highly disrespectful to us teachers.

“In a situation where a student failed only in English or Mathematics and did well in other subjects, do you categorise that as a failure? And generally teachers would be looked down upon? “We need to fine tune our policy to stop laying emphasis on those two subjects as criterion for performance of students. “We don’t believe in such a policy; it ridicules the image and effort of teachers in other subjects as if they are not doing anything.”

Possible causes of the bad result

In the opinion of Hassan, “this year’s English language exam ought to have been cancelled. WAEC caused the students to go through a lot of tension on the day of the examination due to its negligence and inadequate security for its papers.

“A situation where students had to write exams at night using torch lights or candles was alarming. That reflects significant failures of the exam body and the infrastructure provided by WAEC and the governments. “Candidates ought not be treated that way as that might have compromised the integrity of the examination and undermined the efforts of both students and teachers. The lack of appropriate arrangements raised questions about WAEC’s oversight and responsiveness to logistical challenges.”

He reasoned that the novel Computer-Based Testing (CBT) might have also contributed to the debacle.

“On the issue of CBT, we are still waiting for the yardstick and modalities they employed in schools that are located in remote areas with no electricity yet computers were involved in conducting exams. We want to see how effective the conduct will be in terms of students’ number, time management and so on,” he stated.(The Sun)