The West African Examinations Council is facing growing scrutiny over the integrity of its 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination results following complaints from school administrators and education advocates about alleged grading discrepancies and technical problems associated with the expansion of computer-based testing.
Some schools and education stakeholders claim that high-performing students received grades that appeared inconsistent with their previous academic records and performance in other standardised examinations.
The concerns have prompted calls for an independent review of the results and greater transparency in the examination body’s marking and standardisation processes.
One of those raising concerns is the Director of Impact House Model Schools, Mowe, Ogun State, Sam Abdulazeez, who said his school’s performance in the 2025 and 2026 WASSCE examinations had declined despite the retention of teaching staff, improved facilities and increased examination preparation.
Abdulazeez said the school had presented candidates for the WASSCE since 2017 and had historically recorded strong results, particularly in Mathematics and English Language.
He recalled that all 45 candidates presented by the school for Mathematics in 2024 obtained A1.
However, he said the school’s results changed significantly following the introduction of serialisation and the expansion of computer-based testing.
According to him, more than 30 of the school’s 69 candidates who sat the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination scored above 300, while none scored below 200.
The school, he said, had conducted 22 mock UTME examinations to familiarise students with computer-based testing before the examination.
Abdulazeez said the disparity became apparent after the release of the WASSCE results.
“In Mathematics, we had children who had up to 98 in Mathematics during UTME. Now, the As we had in Mathematics, maybe about three or four out of 69,” he said.
He said the school had similarly expected stronger results in English Language, based on the students’ performance in the UTME.
“We only had B and maybe a few Cs. Out of the 69, I think we have three credits, and all others are B2, B3,” he said.
School reports CBT difficulties
Abdulazeez said the school had maintained a strong teaching workforce and had invested substantially in infrastructure after WAEC announced plans to introduce computer-based examinations.
However, he said the school encountered technical problems during a mock examination conducted by WAEC officials before the 2026 examination.
“They did it the first day; the systems could not connect to their own server. They came the second day; they did it, but it was not successful,” he said.
He said the school subsequently contacted WAEC officials in Ogun State and Lagos over concerns about allowing its candidates to sit an examination using a system the school considered unreliable.
According to him, WAEC eventually approved the school to conduct a paper-based examination despite its initial inclusion on the CBT platform.
Abdulazeez said the school had experienced similar concerns with its 2025 results.
He alleged that some candidates initially received grades lower than those expected by the school before changes were subsequently reflected on the results portal.
The experience, he said, prompted him to delay publishing the 2026 results while waiting to see whether any adjustments would be made.
He said no such changes were observed before the school eventually published the results.
Abdulazeez also raised concerns about serialisation, particularly in subjects such as Mathematics, English, Economics and Biology.
He called for an independent review of the 2026 results, arguing that problems with examination administration should not adversely affect students’ academic futures.
“If the schools and the examining bodies cannot conduct the exam properly, it should not affect these children and their future,” he said.
He rejected suggestions that weaker results could simply be attributed to students being inadequately prepared for CBT, noting that candidates had long been exposed to computer-based testing through UTME preparations.
Other schools report unexpected grades
Another school administrator, who requested anonymity, claimed that several students who had performed strongly in the UTME and had previously passed the General Certificate Examination received D7, E8 and F9 grades in core subjects in the 2026 WASSCE.
“Students with top scores in JAMB and verified track records are suddenly receiving D7s, E8s, and F9s in WAEC,” the administrator said.
The administrator further claimed that two affected students who had secured admission to the University of Ibadan were recorded as having failed Mathematics and English Language in their WASSCE results.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Educationists call for transparency
Educationist Fola Adekeye urged WAEC to ensure that its examination procedures and results could withstand scrutiny.
He said examination bodies should investigate credible complaints without waiting for widespread public criticism.
“Those who are managing destinies — exams, exams are destiny issues. Children want to make their results; they want to be doctors, they want to be lawyers, they want to be astronauts,” Adekeye said.
“The public outcry shouldn’t become the determinant of most of these things. They should do the right thing.”
Adekeye cited the controversy surrounding the 2025 UTME results as an example of why examination bodies needed to identify and resolve technical or procedural problems proactively.
He said some students at his school who had previously performed exceptionally well were among those whose WASSCE results had generated concern.
He disclosed that the school’s head boy had scored 369 in the UTME and ranked third nationally, while the head girl and another student also performed strongly.
“Suddenly WAEC came out, and only the head boy is having five As and Bs,” he said.
Adekeye, however, cautioned against making unsupported allegations against WAEC, stressing that his concern was primarily the credibility and integrity of the examination process.
He urged the council to upgrade its facilities where necessary and communicate changes in examination methods or curricula clearly to schools, students and other stakeholders.
Legal action threatened
The controversy has also taken a legal turn, with the Initiative for School Excellence and Education Foundation threatening to institute proceedings against WAEC over alleged irregularities in the conduct and processing of the 2026 computer-based WASSCE.
Through its solicitors, Zuriel Law Practice, the organisation said it had received complaints from candidates alleging discrepancies in the recording and processing of their examination responses.
In a formal demand to WAEC, the lawyers requested the preservation of original electronic records, including candidate response databases, system audit trails, server logs and scoring records.
They also demanded access to the technical standards, regulations and manuals governing the 2026 computer-based examination.
The organisation further called for a mechanism through which affected candidates could inspect their examination records, including the questions presented to them, recorded responses and scoring methodology.
It proposed an independent audit of the CBE platform by education and information technology experts.
The lawyers gave WAEC 14 days from receipt of the letter to confirm preservation of the relevant records and establish procedures for reviewing the disputed results.
They warned that failure to engage could result in legal proceedings seeking orders for disclosure, verification and human review of affected results.
The founder of ISEE, Alex Onyia, also called for greater transparency in WAEC’s grading and standardisation processes, particularly against the backdrop of allegations of question leakage at some paper-based examination centres.
He questioned whether candidates who took examinations under different conditions had been appropriately standardised as one population.
“When WAEC carried out its standardisation, were candidates from fundamentally different examination conditions treated as one population?” Onyia asked.
He argued that if leaked questions had substantially inflated the scores of some candidates, the resulting distribution could affect the thresholds used to determine grades.
Onyia called on WAEC to publish raw-score distributions, grade thresholds for major subjects and details of how candidates who sat examinations under different modes were standardised.
“Show us the data,” he said, asking the council to disclose the thresholds that resulted in grades ranging from A1 to C6 in major subjects.
He also called for clarification of the procedure available to candidates who challenge their results and urged an investigation into allegations of internal management problems within WAEC Nigeria.
“This is not an attack on WAEC. It is a demand for accountability,” Onyia said.
He urged the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Assembly to summon WAEC Nigeria’s leadership to explain the methodology used to process the 2026 results.
WAEC defends results
WAEC has rejected suggestions that the 2026 results were compromised, saying they were produced through established quality-assurance procedures.
The council’s Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, said WAEC was aware of comments, particularly from content creators and social media users, questioning the accuracy and credibility of the results.
She said the 2026 WASSCE for School Candidates was conducted in accordance with the council’s standard operating procedures and relevant education policies, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.
According to the council, candidates’ scripts passed through multiple levels of marking, moderation and auditing using standardised marking schemes and under the supervision of vetted subject specialists.
WAEC urged candidates, parents, schools and members of the public to exercise caution over unverified claims circulating about the results.
It advised anyone with concerns about individual results to contact the council through its offices and verified communication channels rather than relying on social media reports.
The controversy comes amid renewed scrutiny of Nigeria’s examination bodies following technical and administrative problems experienced in previous examinations.
In 2025, the then Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, apologised for errors associated with the 2025 UTME and acknowledged problems with the examination process.
