WAEC has released the 2025 May/June WASSCE results with a sharp drop in performance compared to last year. This article breaks down the numbers, why fewer students passed with core subjects, and the issues WAEC is tackling behind the scenes. Keep reading to understand what really went down.
It started with the usual buzz. Parents whispering in church, classmates forming cool as they secretly refresh the WAEC site every ten minutes. Some people already checked theirs, others are avoiding their phones like they owe it money.
Well, it’s official. WAEC has released the results for the 2025 May/June exam. But this time, the gist no sweet like last year.
Out of nearly two million students who registered, about 1,969,313 actually showed up and wrote the exam. That’s across Nigeria and a few other countries—Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea. Yes, those ones too use our curriculum.
Now here’s where it gets tricky.
WAEC’s Head of Nigeria Office, Amos Dangut, didn’t sugarcoat anything at the Lagos press briefing. While 87.24 percent of the candidates scored credit and above in five subjects (regardless of whether English or Maths was among them), only 38.32 percent made it with both English and Maths included.
Last year, over 72 percent hit that mark. So this year’s result? A major drop. Roughly 34 percent gone, just like that.
Let that sink in.
What Went Wrong?
WAEC says they’ve been trying to clamp down on malpractice, and that may be why scores dropped.
One of the new things they did was “serialise” the objective papers in major subjects like English, Maths, Biology and Economics. That means your neighbour couldn’t easily peep and copy answers. If your version said “A”, theirs might say “C”. Game over for expo.
And honestly, it probably worked. Maybe too well.
According to Mr Dangut, more girls sat the exam than boys. A small win, maybe. 992,526 were female and 976,787 were male.
Also, WAEC made space for students with special needs—over 12,000 of them. From those with sight issues to others battling mental health conditions, the council said it did what it could to support everyone. Their results? Released too.
But not everyone got feedback yet. About 451,796 candidates are still waiting because of one problem or the other—like pending subjects or technical hiccups. That’s nearly a quarter of all who sat.
Still, WAEC promises to sort it soon. How soon? They didn’t say exactly, but fingers crossed.
Exam Malpractice
Even with all the anti-cheating moves, 262,803 candidates had their results withheld. That’s 13 percent of all test takers. The council suspects they got involved in some shady exam activity.
Now, investigations are ongoing. WAEC’s Nigeria Examinations Committee will later decide who gets punished and who gets cleared.
And guess what? It wasn’t just students. Mr Dangut called out some supervisors and invigilators for “helping” candidates. It seems some grown-ups decided to play smart too.
WAEC says it’s working with state ministries to make sure those officials face music.