WAEC withholds 167,486 results, says 38% failed five-credit benchmark

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that 61.54 per cent of candidates who sat the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, while 38.46 per cent failed to meet the minimum requirement.

WAEC also withheld the results of candidates sponsored by state governments yet to settle outstanding debts owed to the examination body, saying the affected candidates would only gain access to their results after the liabilities were cleared.

Speaking during the release of the 2026 Computer-Based WASSCE results at the council’s headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, the Head of the Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, said 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 secondary schools registered for the examination, while 1,950,726 eventually sat for the test conducted between April 24 and June 19.

He disclosed that the council had successfully processed and released the results of 1,834,695 candidates, representing 94.05 per cent of those who wrote the examination.

According to him, the remaining 116,031 results, accounting for 5.95 per cent of the total, are still being processed due to unresolved issues and will be released once the outstanding matters are resolved.

Dangut said candidates sponsored by indebted state governments would also remain unable to access their results until the affected states fulfilled their financial obligations to WAEC.

He appealed to the defaulting governments to settle the debts promptly to prevent further hardship for students.

The WAEC boss noted that candidates whose results had been released could check them online within 12 hours and apply for their digital certificates, which would be available within 48 hours.

He added that 1,200,514 candidates secured five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, representing 61.54 per cent of the total candidates who sat the examination. The figure, he said, reflects a 1.42 percentage point decline compared to the 2025 performance.

A gender breakdown showed that 558,883 successful candidates were male, representing 28.65 per cent of the total candidature, while 641,631 were female, accounting for 32.89 per cent.

On examination malpractice, Dangut revealed that WAEC withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of the total candidates, over alleged involvement in various forms of malpractice.

He said the cases would be reviewed by the Nigeria Examinations Committee before final decisions are taken.

Dangut added that the council, working with security agencies, arrested several individuals involved in examination malpractice, including supervisors and invigilators accused of aiding candidates during the examination.

He said appropriate sanctions would be imposed on culpable officials through the relevant state Ministries of Education after the committee concludes its investigations.