***Stakeholders demand independent review of 2026 WASSCE outcomes

Following outrage among educators, parents, and school administrators over the release of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, the examination body has attributed exam delays and night papers experienced during the exercise to registration delays, insecurity, and last-minute shift to hybrid format by the Federal Government.

The Head, Nigeria National Office (HNO), West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut stated this while addressing mounting concerns from school proprietors regarding logistical challenges and unexpected mass failures in the 2026 examinations.

He made the comments at a virtual dialogue programme organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN).

At the event, stakeholders accused WAEC of mishandling the examination process and unfairly penalising schools that uphold integrity. Many participants alleged that schools notorious for malpractice recorded better results, while reputable institutions with zero tolerance for cheating were left with poor outcomes.

At the meeting, various educators shared troubling examples of discrepancies. The Principal, Babcock University High School, Illisha-Remo, Ogun State, Fatola Samson, said the 2026 WAEC exam is a far cry from the school’s usual performance and has negatively impacted the admission prospects of students.

Stakeholders also questioned WAEC’s readiness for CBT deployment. Proprietor, Soundmind School, Arigbajo, Ogun State, Dr. Peter Ogunkunle argued that if WAEC’s Head of National Office (HNO) could not maintain a stable internet connection during a Zoom meeting, it was difficult to trust the infrastructure used for examinations. Others highlighted the prohibitive costs of CBT requirements, including laptops, generators, and CCTV installations, which many private schools cannot afford.

Stakeholders at the meeting therefore called for an independent review of the results, warning that the credibility of CBT in Nigeria could be permanently damaged if anomalies are not addressed.

The participants also demanded urgent government intervention to safeguard students’ admissions prospects and restore confidence in Nigeria’s examination system.

Responding, WAEC’s Head of National Office, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, dismissed claims that technology or logistics affected results. He insisted that new security measures, such as randomisation and serialisation, curbed malpractice, leading to performance drops in schools previously reliant on cheating.

He emphasised that WAEC is an achievement test based on a strict syllabus, which differs entirely from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) aptitude tests.

Despite the public outcry, Dangut revealed that the overall drop in performance across all subjects was a mere 1.4%. According to him, in the English Language, the cumulative percentage of candidates scoring C6 improved from 64.58% in 2025 to 69.31% in 2026. While in Mathematics, candidates scoring C6 saw a slight drop from 88.66% last year to 84.03% this year.

The HNO also confirmed that results for visually impaired candidates have been released, though a few are undergoing manual resolution for shading errors.

Dangut however, rejected appeals for external verification, but advised aggrieved schools and students to appeal for review of the results