August 10, (THEWILL) — The admission by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Friday that it reviewed the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results initially released on Monday, following widespread public outcry, leaves much to be desired.
According to the Head of Nigeria’s Office (HNO) of WAEC, Amos Josiah Dangut, the updated results show a significant improvement in candidates’ performance, with 62.96 percent now recorded as having credits and above in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Surprisingly, Dangut said the review was prompted by public concerns raised over the initial results, which reported a pass rate of only 38.32 percent in five subjects, including English and Mathematics.
The reviewed results he disclosed showed that 1,239,884 candidates, representing 62.96 per cent, obtained credits and above in at least five subjects.
“The council took immediate steps to address the concerns raised by stakeholders. After a meticulous review of the examination process and results, we are pleased to announce that 62.96 percent of candidates achieved credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including the compulsory English Language and Mathematics, ” Dr. Dangut said and offered profuse apologies, having noted that the previous error was caused by the mistakes from the team of service providers that marked the Objective part of the English Language examination.
The substance of Dangut’s admission of guilt is that if stakeholders had accepted WAEC’s negligence and incompetence in handling this year’s result, it would have passed its failure to the candidates and held on to its initial submission that the 2025 WAEC was the worst performance in a decade.
This awful development recalls a similar incident involving the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, which admitted glitches in its 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, after widespread public outcry and condemnation of its poor performance by stakeholders. As a result of the concerns, JAMB, which had initially blamed parents and bad students for its woeful performance had to swallow its pride and made 379,997 candidates to retake the examination, even under worse conditions.
In 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, blemished the result of the presidential election through a ‘glitch.’ Similar technical glitches have been reported by institutions that have a direct impact on the well-being of Nigerians.
There is no question that institutional decay has set in the Nigerian system and unless some drastic corrective measures are taken, a disaster of an unknown magnitude may be facing the nation in the coming years.
In a way, these institutional shortcomings and professional incompetence are a sad reflection of a leadership vacuum, moral decay, institutional corruption, particularly in governance and bureaucratic inertia, that have all contributed in no small measure to the overall decline in sectoral performance of which education is one.
While we commend the public and partners for raising concerns over the mentioned deplorable conditions as they cropped up and the authorities for responding promptly, we urge all the relevant parties to the situation to synergise for the avoidance of future recurrence.
We hope the current Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, is taking notice of these developments that may continue to reduce the education sector in the estimation of the discerning public. Recently, the minister directed WAEC and the National Examinations Council, NECO, to transition to computer- based testing by 2026, with 2027 as the cut off date for 100 per cent compliance.
Good policy, no doubt, especially in this age of ICT and the availability of cell phones to a majority of Nigerians, including students. But what about the schools? How many public schools in the country have access to the requisite facilities and the technical know-how, not to mention the supporting infrastructure and availability of computers for a majority of students.
Besides, education in the preceding year has been commercialised as indicated in the mushrooming of schools and colleges without the required facilities and amenities, partly because of the yardstick adopted by the authorities in issuing licences to proprietors of schools and universities without the requisite, rigorous supervision.
Education is not a commodity, neither is it all about certification. The chief purpose of education is to serve as a process for the broadening of the horizon and steadying the minds of students; to fire their imagination and polish their intuition. A country that breeds illiterates can only head for the dungeon.
Licensing secondary schools and universities as a way to curry support or favour associates, is one of the banes of the sector. It must stop. Schools that violate laid-down rules must be sanctioned without fear of favour.
Training and retraining of teachers and the provision of wholesome welfare packages for them must be done regularly. As a matter of urgency, the supervising ministry must always strive to carry stakeholders along in all of its policy considerations and implementation.
If these internal, sectoral checks are implemented, while the government hopefully embarks on rebuilding the broken society, then education can regain its pride of place as an enabler of literacy and ultimately, enlightenment.
