WAEC Shuts Down Result Portal for 24 Hours to Fix Technical Glitch

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has temporarily closed its result checking portal for 24 hours to address a technical issue. The decision was announced via a post on X (formerly Twitter) by WAEC Nigeria, stating that the waecdirect.org portal is currently inaccessible due to unforeseen system problems. The maintenance began shortly after the release of the 2025 WAEC results for school candidates on July 5, 2025 [1].

Candidates across the region who have yet to access their results must now wait until the portal is operational again. The system outage has prompted concerns over the preparedness and technical capabilities of the examination body, particularly during a crucial time for students. In a related development, the National Examination Council (NECO) has also suspended its result checking portal for system upgrades since August 4, 2025. According to NECO, the maintenance is intended to enhance speed, security, and system stability during periods of high traffic. However, the council has not yet provided a specific date for the restoration of services [1].

The 2025 WASSCE (West African Senior School Certificate Examination) had 1,973,253 candidates registered from 23,554 schools across the region. Out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the exams, only 754,545 achieved credit passes or higher in at least five subjects, including English and Mathematics. This represents a pass rate of 38.32%, the lowest since 2020. According to WAEC’s Nigeria Head Office, Amos Dangut, this marks a 33.8% decline from the 72.12% pass rate recorded in 2024 [1].

Additionally, 192,089 candidates—9.75% of the total—had their results withheld due to allegations of malpractice, a marginal decrease from 11.92% in 2024. Of the 1,969,313 candidates in Nigeria, 1,517,517 had their results fully processed and released, while 451,796 are still waiting for some subjects to be finalized due to unresolved issues [1].

The 2025 results continue a declining trend in academic performance over recent years. The 38.32% pass rate is the lowest since 2020, following a significant jump in 2021 to 81.7%, followed by gradual declines in the years that followed. Experts have attributed the poor performance to the difficult conditions during the exams, including the delayed delivery of question papers, which forced some candidates to take the English Language paper late into the night [1].

The simultaneous downtimes of the WAEC and NECO result portals highlight the broader challenges faced by online examination systems in the region. While both bodies cite the need for technical improvements as the reason for the outages, the absence of clear restoration timelines has contributed to growing frustration among students and parents. These incidents raise important questions about the reliability of digital platforms in managing high-stakes academic assessments and the necessity for more resilient infrastructure and effective contingency planning [1].

Source:

[1] WAEC shuts down result portal for 24 hours to fix technical glitch

https://technext24.com/2025/08/06/waec-shuts-down-result-portal-for-24-hrs/