2026 WASSCE Results Trigger Mass Failure Outcry as WAEC Defends Performance Decline
The release of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has triggered widespread outcry across Nigeria’s education sector, with educators, parents, and school administrators raising concerns over what many have described as a mass failure among candidates.
According to figures announced by Dr Amos Josiah Dangut, Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, at a press briefing in Lagos, 61.54 percent of school candidates who sat the 2026 examination obtained at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, a result representing a 1.42 percent decline compared to the previous year. More broadly, 1,687,378 candidates, or 86.50 percent of those who sat the exam, obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects with or without English Language and Mathematics. Nearly two million candidates from more than 24,200 secondary schools across Nigeria sat the examination this year, with the results also covering candidates from Nigerian-curriculum schools in Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, and Equatorial Guinea.
Alongside the overall decline in performance, WAEC disclosed that the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 percent of all those who sat the examination, were withheld over alleged examination malpractice, a slight improvement from the 9.7 percent recorded in 2025. According to Dangut, the withheld results were linked to a range of infractions, from the use of mobile phones inside examination halls despite an existing ban, to instances of coordinated cheating within certain schools. He said all such cases remain under investigation, with outcomes to be presented to the appropriate council committee for final decisions to be communicated to affected candidates through their schools. WAEC further clarified that candidates whose results remain unreleased due to their state’s outstanding debt to the council fall into a separate category entirely distinct from malpractice-related withholding, and it urged students and parents to disregard unverified lists or claims circulating online about specific schools having their results mass-withheld.
The controversy deepened during a virtual dialogue organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN), where school proprietors and other stakeholders pressed WAEC officials over the conduct of the examination and the resulting candidate performance. Some participants alleged that schools previously known for examination malpractice appeared to have recorded stronger results than institutions with strict anti-cheating policies, while others expressed particular concern over unusually poor performances recorded by students from well-regarded schools. The Principal of Babcock University High School in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Fatola Samson, said the 2026 results fell well below the institution’s typical performance and could carry negative consequences for affected students.
Separately, a WAEC official in Anambra State, Olanrewaju Fadehan, alleged in a widely circulated video that last-minute adjustments made before the results were released had affected candidates who sat the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) version of the examination, claiming that technical glitches disrupted the process and that some schools had spent significant sums on CBT facilities that were badly affected. WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs did not respond to requests for comment on these specific allegations.
As stakeholders continue to press for greater clarity on the causes behind the decline, the fallout from the 2026 WASSCE results is expected to have significant implications for university and tertiary admissions processes ahead of the 2026/2027 academic session, with education advocates calling for a thorough review of examination administration, malpractice prevention, and overall secondary school preparedness across the country.
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