The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Nigeria has revoked the licences of 574 schools over examination malpractices. According the board, list of the affected schools have been forwarded to the Federal government. This represents 24.37% of the total registered schools for this year’s examination.
What this means for the affected Schools
This is a heart wrecking news for candidates of these schools who are preparing to start their exams on Thursday, April 24, 2025. WAEC Nigeria, stated clearly that the schools will not be allowed to conduct the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The Head of WAEC’s National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut made this known during a press briefing on Thursday at the headquarters of the examination body in Lagos.
He said “this year, we have shared with them a total of 574 schools that have their recognition withdrawn and that is also going to be the same for all examining bodies.
“So, these are those that have got their license revoked as far as the examination centre is concerned. So we will not conduct examinations there. We don’t know them as far as conducting examinations.”
2025 WASSCE commencement date and other relevant statistics
The 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) will hold from Thursday, April 24 till Friday, June 20, 2025.
For this year’s WASSCE, Dangut said 1,973,253 candidates registered for the examination from 23,554 schools.
He further break down the statistics, emphasising that 979,228 were male while 994,025 were female candidates.
According to him the number of candidates that registered grew by 158,627 compared to what was recorded last year.
Service delivery; WAEC Leverages on technology
Dangut stressed that the body was leveraging on technology to improve delivery, noting the introduction of the maiden Computer-based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CB-WASSCE) for the candidates.
He said “As an organisation that believes in the use of modern Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to solve myriads of problems as well as improve service delivery to the Nigerian child, the Council has introduced its maiden Computer-based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (CB-WASSCE) for School Candidates, 2025.”
He added that as part of the measures to uphold academics and moral integrity, candidates sitting for the examination will have their questions numbers shuffled.
“It will interest you to know that from this year, two candidates will not have the same questions on each number. We have adopted this innovation for some of the WASSCE codes.”
“This initiative is part of the paradigm shift in the education sector, particularly, the adoption of current test administration techniques geared towards upholding the academic and moral integrity of the National Policy on Education and in line with the vision of the Federal Ministry of Education.”
2025 WASSCE and growing insecurity
Security situation in the country is another threat to smooth examination experience. Dangut is concerned about growing insecurity challenges. He assures of continued partnership with the police in various states to provide adequate security for smooth and hitch-free conduct of the examination.