WASSCE results fallout: Stakeholders advise schools to embrace NECO

Following the fallout between the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and some schools over the results of the school exam, stakeholders have taken a major position on the patronage of exams conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO).

At a meeting with the Minister for Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, over a petition by the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) over the results of the 2026 Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), far reaching decision were taken for schools to patronage NECO.

In a statement signed by NAPPS National President, Dr. Samira Jibir and the National Secretary, Dr. Kayode Adeyemi, said the meeting was based on concerns raised by NAPPS over the conduct of WASSCE and council’s response was not satisfactory.

One of the issues noted was that the Minister of education has limited direct control over WAEC, which is a regional examination body.

The statement noted that stakeholders agreed that greater attention be given to strengthen NECO, a national exam body, which the Federal Government has more direct oversight.

“Public and private schools in Nigeria were encouraged to embrace NECO examinations more widely as a credible alternative examination pathway,” the stakeholders advised.

The Association stated NECO was also challenged to increase its engagement with relevant stakeholders, strengthen its rebranding and public communication, improve the confidence of schools, parents and candidates in its examinations and promote broader acceptance of its examinations.

Another major decision reached at the meeting is the need for WAEC to improve its technology and strengthen its digital systems to enhance the efficiency, security and credibility of its examinations and result-management processes.

“Private schools were advised to establish effective arrangements for collecting school fees and reducing outstanding debts, rather than relying on withholding candidates’ WASSCE results as a means of recovering such debts,”.

On the demand to remark answer scripts of some schools, the education minister stated that the ongoing exercise requested by schools would be conducted by WAEC on a pro bono basis, without additional cost to the schools concerned.

NAPPS stated that the remarking exercise has far been completed for 28 schools and no changes were recorded in the results of 25 schools, while only marginal changes were recorded for the remaining three schools.

Comparative performance data for the 2025 and 2026 WASSCE were submitted to the minister of education, which showed an improvement in candidates’ overall performance at the credit-pass level this year.

It noted: “This appeared inconsistent with the pattern of results released by WAEC and the widespread failure reportedly recorded among candidates who sat the CBE. However, significant declines of over 30 per cent in Igbo Language and 19 per cent in Physics were observed. These disparities were duly noted for further consideration.

At the meeting, WAEC was advised to organise a broader engagement with private schools and other relevant stakeholders after the remarking and the review processes have been concluded.

“At the engagement, WAEC is expected to present a more detailed statistical report on candidates’ performance in the 2026 WASSCE and respond to the concerns raised by stakeholders,” NAPPS added.

The engagement agreed that the education minister will decide on NAPPS’ request for the establishment of an investigative committee after the ongoing engagements, reviews and related exercises have been concluded.

On exam fraud, the meeting backed the support for credible effort to dismantle the examination malpractice ecosystem, which cuts across schools, parents, students and compromised officials within examination bodies.

While WAEC maintained that the poor performance recorded in the school exam resulted was largely the introduction of stringent measures to curb examination malpractice, including the serialisation of examination questions.

According to NAPPS, the council’s position remained a bitter pill for many stakeholders to swallow and stressed that the collective responsibility to confront and eliminate examination malpractice must not be overlooked.

The meeting challenged WAEC to provide clear and convincing statistical evidence demonstrating the relationship between the anti-malpractice measures introduced and the pattern of results recorded.

During the engagement a committee was been established to harmonise the timetables of the different examination bodies, ensure that examination results are released early enough to support tertiary institution, admission processes and review the logistical and financial pressures placed on school examination officers by examination and registration processes.

NAPPS disclosed that the meeting acknowledged the challenges associated with some 2026 WASSCE results, the JAMB CAPS admission period has been extended to allow candidates sufficient time to present their NECO results to address any gaps in their WAEC results.

The Association clarified that it was the 2025/2026 admission exercise that closed on August 31st, 2026, not the 2026/2027 admission session.