WAEC under pressure as schools query 2026 WASSCE grades

…stakeholders want independent probe, cite CBT glitches, serialisation

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is facing mounting pressure from school administrators and education stakeholders over the credibility of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, amid allegations of grading irregularities

Several school heads say students who performed strongly in other standardised tests, particularly the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), were awarded grades in WASSCE that did not reflect their academic standing, reviving questions about the reliability of the council’s marking and serialisation processes.

Sam Abdulazeez, a school director, told journalists that his school had recorded a steady drop in WASSCE performance in 2025 and 2026, even as staffing, facilities and examination preparation improved.

The school, which has presented candidates for WASSCE since 2017, previously posted strong results in Mathematics and English Language, with all 45 candidates entered for Mathematics in 2024 obtaining A1.

That trend reversed after CBT and serialisation were introduced, he said. Of 69 candidates the school presented for the 2026 UTME, more than 30 scored above 300, and none scored below 200, a performance he attributed to 22 mock UTME sittings held to familiarise students with the computer-based format.

Yet only three or four candidates earned A1 in Mathematics in WASSCE, down from a near-universal pass rate in previous years. Results in English Language followed a…