2025 WASSCE Results Spark Outrage as Pass Rate Plummets to 38%

Education stakeholders across Nigeria are raising alarms after the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) released dismal results for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), with only 38.32% of candidates achieving five credits, including crucial English and Mathematics subjects.

A Dramatic Decline

The newly released data shows a shocking drop from 2024’s 72.12% pass rate, with just 754,545 out of 1,969,313 candidates meeting the benchmark for university admission. Parents, teachers, and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have condemned the results, attributing the failure to systemic breakdowns in Nigeria’s education sector.

Stakeholders Point to Systemic Failure

• Parents blame inadequate government funding and poorly trained teachers.

• Educators cite overcrowded classrooms, outdated curricula, and lack of learning materials.

• NANS demands an emergency review, calling the results “a national embarrassment.”

WAEC has yet to issue an official statement on the drastic decline, but pressure is mounting for urgent reforms.

According to the Head of Nigeria National Office, WAEC, Dr. Amos Dangut, this was a 33.8% decrease in performance.

Students relied on candlelight, torchlight – Parent

Reacting to the poor results, a concerned parent from Imo State, Oluchi Kalu, who contacted Vanguard, said: “In Imo State, the WAEC results were quite shocking — many students failed English.

“They wrote the exams under difficult conditions.

“Some had to rely on candles and torchlights due to power outages. Yet, it appears no concessions were made during marking, despite these challenges.

“You cannot keep students waiting late into the night to sit for exams and then mark their scripts without considering the circumstances.

“I witnessed some of my neighbours’ children returning home in the wee hours after their exams. And this wasn’t limited to Imo — it happened in other states as well,” Kalu added.

It’s system failure – NUT

For the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, the development boils down to system failure.

The Chairman of the Lagos State Wing of the NUT, Comrade Akintoye Hassan, said: “Let us first take a look at the condition under which some of the candidates sat for some of the papers, especially the English Language paper.

“The Council said it discovered that the paper leaked, and instead of cancelling it, went ahead to let students write it at odd hours.

“The students, who had conditioned their minds to write the paper in the morning, were delayed till evening and even night in some cases.

“They were not allowed to go out. May be some of them did not eat even at that point in time.

“When the paper was to be written finally, in most cases, the students did so using phone torchlight and other embarrassing sources of light because most of the schools have no power supply sources.

“Does it mean schools don’t deserve to be provided with electricity even if they are not residential? Is electricity not one of the things to aid learning?

“Now, some people would want to heap the whole blame on the teachers. Apart from the above, which cannot be the sole factor for the development, so many other factors are responsible too.

“Some students only want to be literate, and forget about one big certificate,” he stated.

Tech hitches like UTME – NANS

The National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Comrade Adeyemi Ajasa, opined that the condition under which the candidates wrote some papers, especially English was terrible.
“What do you expect? The conduct of the exam in some instances left much to be desired.

“Look at the day they wrote the English Language paper. It was horrific. Candidates were drained emotionally and were tired.

“But a lot of other factors also contributed. The technical hitches in the exam were what some candidates also experienced during the UTME,” the students’ body noted.

Do we have the teachers? – NAPTAN

Also, National President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, opined that a combination of factors was responsible for the abysmal performance.

“One may say the level of examination malpractice has gone down. But that is just one of the factors,” he said.

But, he asked: “Do we have the teachers that can deliver what is needed in the required number?

“Many states have refused to engage new teachers to fill vacancies. Also, some parents cannot afford to buy the necessary textbooks for the wards and children.

“The prices have gone out of reach.”

Recommendations

For Oluchi Kalu from Imo; she recommended that mock examinations be organised urgently to help the affected students recover and prepare for future assessments under better conditions.

For NUT, “Our challenge is not what we are experiencing now, but what we ought to do in the past that we have failed to do.

“Our young ones too don’t take the issue of education serious again when they see those who go to school and are certificated doing menial jobs to eke out a living.”

NANS’ recommendations: “There is need to take a holistic look at the education sector, and redress the situation.

“Teachers must be motivated. More of them should be employed and trained to impart the needed knowledge on the students.

“Also, what about facilities too in our schools? We are pleading with the government to please pay priority attention to the education sector,” Comrade Ajasa said.

For NAPTAN: “We need to also equip our schools properly. Teachers welfare is also critical.

“When a teacher is thinking of what to eat and how to meet basic needs, how can he give the best to the students?

“Parents also have to take more interest in the education of their children,” he said.

Vanguard News