WAEC Upgrades 2025 WASSCE Results, Pass Rate in English & Maths Jumps to 62.9%

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced a major revision to the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, raising the percentage of candidates who passed English Language and Mathematics from 38.32% to 62.96%.

The change follows an internal review that uncovered a grading error in the English Language Objective Paper (Paper 3) for candidates who took the paper-based version of the exam.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Friday evening, WAEC’s Head of National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, admitted the error was due to a wrong serialised code file being used during the printing of the paper. Candidates who wrote the exam via computer-based testing were unaffected.

“We sincerely apologise for this embarrassing situation and the distress it has caused candidates, parents, and schools,” Dangut said. “The anomaly has been corrected, and candidates can now access their updated results on our portal.”

Updated Statistics

• Total candidates with 5 credits including English & Maths: 1,239,884 (62.96%)
• Male candidates: 582,065 (46.95%)
• Female candidates: 657,819 (53.05%)
• Total candidates who sat the exam: 1,969,313

Despite the significant improvement from the initial release, this year’s pass rate still marks a 9.16% decline compared to 2024, when 72.12% achieved the same benchmark.

Next Steps for Candidates

WAEC has advised candidates to:

• Recheck their results on www.waecdirect.org
• Apply for their digital certificates within 48 hours of confirmation
• Expect updated result listings to be sent to schools soon

The earlier results release had sparked outrage, particularly among candidates who excelled in the JAMB UTME but initially recorded poor English grades in the WASSCE.

WAEC has assured stakeholders that it is implementing safeguards to prevent such errors from recurring.