WAEC links exam delays to insecurity, fatal crash

Three West African Examinations Council (WAEC) officials are dead, and thousands of students across Oyo, Lagos, and Osun states sat their examinations in darkness last week some by torchlight, others by the glow of mobile phone screens after a fatal road accident and a catalogue of operational failures threw the 2026 WASSCE into chaos.

WAEC confirmed on Monday that the three officials died on Wednesday, 3rd June, when their vehicle collided with a truck along the Gombe-Yola highway. They were transporting sensitive examination materials at the time.

The accident gutted WAEC’s distribution schedule at a critical moment. Question papers and answer booklets did not reach several centres on time, forcing candidates sitting the Mathematics and Agricultural Science papers to begin well after 8pm. Students dragged chairs outside classrooms to catch whatever light remained, or relied on solar lamps and phone flashlights to write papers that should have started at long before that time.

WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, said in a statement that the accident was not the only factor. The council listed unresolved examination modalities, late registration of candidates, and active security threats as compounding causes.

“This heartbreaking loss, coupled with prevailing regional security challenges, severely compromised our distribution schedule, which inadvertently led to the delayed start times. While we mourned our fallen colleagues, our team of indefatigable staff worked around the clock to deploy emergency contingency measures to ensure that the examination was still conducted in the affected areas,” WAEC stated.

Security protests triggered by the abduction of schoolchildren in some areas further blocked the movement of materials a detail that lays bare how many things collapsed at once.

WAEC pointed to Friday, 5th June, as proof that the situation had stabilised, saying examinations ran smoothly that day. The council assured the public that the remaining papers would proceed without disruption.

“The council hereby assures the general public that it has put modalities in place to ensure that the rest of the examination is conducted hitch-free,” it said.

The 2026 May/June WASSCE, which began on 21st April, is scheduled to end on 19th June.