WAEC Faces Backlash Over Portal Shutdown and Poor 2025 WASSCE Results

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is facing renewed public outrage following the temporary shutdown of its result checker portal on Wednesday evening. The Council attributed the disruption to “technical issues” and assured candidates that efforts were underway to restore access within 24 hours, while apologising for any inconvenience caused.

This development has further intensified concerns over the integrity of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), particularly after the announcement that only 38.32 percent of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the exams obtained credits and above in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics the worst performance recorded in over a decade.

Social media has since been flooded with reactions from candidates, parents, and concerned Nigerians. Many linked the poor English Language results to the delayed and chaotic conduct of the paper on May 28, which reportedly held late into the night at several centres. Some claimed the conditions under which the exam was written including poor lighting and reduced time severely impacted performance.

One candidate expressed concern that the nationwide delay during the English Language paper may have contributed to widespread failure. Another lamented that students were given barely an hour to complete an exam designed to last more than two hours, under poor conditions, with no electricity and growing tension at exam centres.

Many candidates shared that despite earning high grades in other subjects, their English results were unexpectedly low or withheld, sparking calls for a full re-evaluation of the scripts. A few expressed hope that the temporary portal shutdown could signal possible corrections or updates to the results once it reopens. Others accused the Council of manipulating results, likening the situation to recent controversies involving other national examination bodies.

Parents joined in the outcry, questioning the credibility of the grading process. One parent stated that their daughter had five A1s and two B2s yet scored a D7 in English and had Physics withheld. Some users pleaded emotionally with WAEC to review the results, saying the current outcome was damaging students’ futures and erasing months of hard work and sacrifice.

A growing number of voices are calling for external oversight and have urged the Ministry of Education or even the presidency to step in and order an independent review of the 2025 WASSCE process. A few demanded a complete recall of the English and Mathematics results, warning that failure to address the issue might spark nationwide protests.

WAEC has not issued any further clarification on the English Language grading nor responded to the mounting calls for a comprehensive review of affected scripts.