The West African Examinations Council is facing growing scrutiny over the integrity of its 2026 WASSCE results, following allegations of grading anomalies, technical glitches and inconsistencies linked to the rollout of Computer-Based Testing.
School administrators and education advocates said some high-performing students received unexpectedly low grades despite strong academic records and performances in other standardised examinations. One Ogun school, for instance, reported a sharp drop in A1 grades in Mathematics and English compared with previous years.
The Director of Impact House Model Schools, Sam Abdulazeez, said all 45 candidates presented by the school for Mathematics in 2024 scored A1, while only about three or four of its 69 candidates recorded A1 in the subject in 2026. He also cited technical difficulties encountered during WAEC’s CBT mock examination, which eventually led the school to conduct its examination on paper.
Other administrators reported cases of students who scored highly in the 2026 UTME subsequently receiving D7, E8 and F9 grades in core WASSCE subjects. An educationist, Fola Adekeye, urged WAEC to ensure its examination processes meet the test of integrity while cautioning against unsubstantiated allegations.
The controversy has also triggered potential legal action. The Initiative for School Excellence and Education Foundation, through its solicitors, demanded the preservation of electronic examination records, including response databases, server logs, audit trails and scoring records. It also called for an independent audit of the CBT platform and a mechanism for affected candidates to review their examination records.
The organisation’s founder, Alex Onyia, called on WAEC to disclose raw-score distributions, grade thresholds and details of how candidates from different examination modes were standardised. He argued that transparency was necessary to determine whether differences in examination conditions or alleged question leakage affected the grading process.
WAEC, however, defended the integrity of the 2026 results, saying they were produced through rigorous, quality-assured procedures. Its Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, said candidates’ scripts underwent multi-tiered marking, moderation and auditing by vetted subject experts and urged the public to rely on verified information rather than social media claims.
The controversy comes amid renewed scrutiny of Nigeria’s examination bodies following errors in the 2025 UTME that prompted former JAMB Registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede to publicly apologise. With concerns now surrounding the 2026 WASSCE, stakeholders are calling for greater transparency and independent verification to ensure that technical or procedural problems do not unfairly affect students’ academic futures.
