James Uche
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has issued a public apology after discovering technical glitches that affected the results of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates.
In a statement released on Thursday, August 7, 2025, by the Council’s Public Affairs Department, WAEC acknowledged a surge of complaints from candidates and guardians following the initial release of the results. This prompted the Council to carry out an internal review of the outcome of four core subjects: Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics.
According to the statement, the review uncovered technical bugs caused by the deployment of a new anti-malpractice innovation known as paper serialization. This method, already in use by another national examination body, assigns unique question paper formats to different examination centers to curb cheating. While WAEC hailed the measure as in line with global best practices, it admitted that the technical implementation encountered unexpected errors that distorted result entries for the affected subjects.
“As part of our efforts to curb examination malpractice, the Council embarked on an innovation (paper serialization)… However, an internal post-result release procedure revealed some technical bugs in the results,” the statement explained.
The Council emphasized that, being a “responsive body sensitive to fairness and professionalism,” it immediately suspended access to the online results portal to allow for urgent corrections. Access to the WASSCE result checker has been temporarily restricted, but the Council assured that full access would be restored within 24 hours.
Affected students have been advised to re-check their results after the system is updated.
WAEC also apologized for the inconvenience and emotional distress caused to students, parents, and schools. “We extend our deep and sincere apologies to all affected candidates and the general public,” the statement said.
The Council reassured stakeholders of its continued commitment to integrity, transparency, and excellence in the conduct of its examinations.
“WAEC remains committed to upholding excellence, fairness and transparency in all our assessment processes. Thank you for always counting on our integrity and reposing confidence in us to render quality service to the Nigerian child,” the statement concluded.