The West African Examinations Council has withheld the outcomes of 167,486 candidates who sat the 2026 West African Elder School Certificate Evaluation for School Candidates over accusations of examination malpractice.
The affected outcomes account for 8.59 per cent of the 1,950,726 candidates who took part in the examination, representing a small improvement from the 9.7 percent malpractice rate recorded in the 2025 diet plan.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in Lagos by the Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut, during the official release of the 2026 examination results.
Dangut associated the withheld results to numerous forms of examination misbehavior, particularly the continued use of mobile phones in examination halls regardless of an existing ban, as well as organised malpractice involving some schools.
He also disclosed that a number of managers and invigilators linked in aiding evaluation malpractice had been collared and would deal with disciplinary action through the appropriate state ministries of education.
According to WAEC, 1,959,668 candidates from 24,207 secondary schools throughout Nigeria, Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea signed up for the evaluation, while 1,950,726 ultimately sat for the papers.
Of those who took the examination, 1,200,514 prospects, representing 61.54 per cent, acquired credits in a minimum of 5 topics, including English Language and Mathematics.
The council likewise reported that 1,687,378 prospects, or 86.50 per cent, made credits in a minimum of 5 topics, irrespective of their efficiency in English Language and Mathematics.
WAEC kept in mind that the percentage of prospects who protected five credits, consisting of English and Mathematics, came by 1.42 portion points when compared with the 2025 evaluation.
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Amongst the candidates who accomplished the criteria of 5 credits, consisting of English Language and Mathematics, 641,631 were female, accounting for 32.89 percent of the total candidature.
Overall, female candidates numbered 997,267, representing 51.12 percent of those who sat the evaluation, while 953,459 prospects, or 48.88 per cent, were male.
The council divulged that 1,834,695 prospects, representing 94.05 percent of the total candidature, had their results totally processed and launched.
However, the outcomes of 116,031 prospects, totaling up to 5.95 per cent, were still going through processing.
WAEC also exposed that 1,213 prospects coping with unique requirements took part in the evaluation. They included 137 aesthetically impaired prospects, 491 prospects with hearing problems, 55 prospects who were spastic or psychologically challenged, and 41 physically challenged candidates.
The 2026 assessment was the 2nd edition of the Computer-Based WASSCE for school candidates following the introduction of the format by the examination body.
Dangut said WAEC carried out a number of technological developments during the workout to improve efficiency and secure the integrity of the evaluation procedure. These included the Digital Inspector Marking System to speed up result processing, the serialisation of concern papers to minimise assessment malpractice, and a new online platform that allows candidates to produce electronic PINs for outcome monitoring.
The assessment was carried out in between April 24 and June 19, 2026, with 102,708 examiners participating in the marking process across 88 designated centres.
In what he referred to as his 3rd and last media briefing as Head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, Dangut likewise cautioned that candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to the council would not have access to their results up until the impressive monetary commitments were settled.