Schools question WAEC's 2026 results as brilliant students receive shock low grades

• Schools are questioning the credibility of the 2026 WAEC results, saying many brilliant students received unexpectedly low grades.

• Some administrators linked the issue to CBT rollout, serialisation and technical glitches, while calling for an independent review.

• Lawyers and education advocates have demanded transparency, including access to marking records, grading thresholds and a technical audit.

• WAEC has defended the results, insisting they were produced through rigorous marking, moderation and quality assurance processes.

The release of the 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results has stirred fresh controversy, with some schools and education stakeholders accusing the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) of possible grading errors and technical issues.

The complaints are coming from school owners, education advocates and even legal groups, who insist that several students with strong academic records ended up with surprisingly poor grades.

One of the schools speaking out is Impact House Model Schools in Mowe, Ogun State.

According to the school's Director, Sam Abdulazeez, their results have dropped sharply over the last two years, despite improving facilities, keeping the same teachers and investing heavily in preparing students for both CBT and paper examinations.

He said the difference became obvious when they compared students' impressive JAMB scores with their WAEC grades.

"This year, out of the 69 children we presented for JAMB, over 30 of them had more than 300 in JAMB. And you know that JAMB is completely CBT."

Abdulazeez explained that no student from the school scored below 200 in the 2026 UTME because they took preparation seriously, conducting as many as 22 mock UTME exams before the main examination.

But when the WAEC results came out, the outcome shocked them.

"In Mathematics, we had children who had up to 98 in Mathematics during UTME. Now, the As we had in Mathematics, maybe about three or four out of 69. This is a school that we usually have almost everybody having A1 in Math."

He also questioned the English Language results.

"We only had B and maybe a few Cs. Out of the 69, I think we have three credits, and all others are B2, B3."

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Abdulazeez also revealed that the school experienced technical issues during WAEC's CBT trial before the examination.

According to him, WAEC officials visited twice to test the system, but the computers couldn't connect successfully.

"They did it the first day; the systems could not connect to their own server. They came the second day; they did it, but it was not successful."

He said the school later contacted WAEC officials in Ogun and Lagos, arguing that they couldn't risk allowing students to write the examination on an unstable system.

Eventually, WAEC reportedly approved the school to use the traditional paper format, even though it had initially been scheduled for CBT.

The school director also claimed something similar happened in 2025.

According to him, students who were initially given lower grades later had their results changed on WAEC's portal.

"When last year's result was released, I had already gone to publish the result, only for some people to call me that it's like they have made some changes."

"When we checked the result back again, we saw that those who they gave B had moved to A1. Those who they gave C moved to B last year."

Because of that experience, he delayed releasing this year's results, hoping another adjustment would happen. But according to him, nothing changed.

He also questioned whether WAEC's serialisation process, the use of different versions of the same question paper, could have affected candidates.

Another school administrator, who asked not to be identified, claimed students who had excellent JAMB scores and even passed previous WAEC GCE examinations suddenly received D7, E8 and F9 grades in important subjects.

According to the administrator, two students who had already secured admission into the University of Ibadan reportedly failed Mathematics and English in the newly released WAEC results.

Education consultant Fola Adekeye said examination bodies handle matters that determine students' futures and should investigate complaints before public outrage forces them to act.

"Those who are managing destinies — exams, exams are destiny issues. Children want to make their results; they want to be doctors, they want to be lawyers, they want to be astronauts. Those managing those checkpoints should do better."

He added: "The public outcry shouldn't become the determinant of most of these things. They should do the right thing."

Adekeye also referred to the 2025 JAMB controversy, where technical issues affected candidates before the examination body later admitted errors.

He disclosed that some outstanding students in his own school also received results that raised questions.

"Our head boy had 369, was the third in the federation. Our head girl and another student did so well in JAMB, but suddenly WAEC came out, and only the head boy is having five As and Bs."

Still, he said he wasn't accusing WAEC of wrongdoing but simply asking the council to maintain transparency.

"I don't question exam bodies. I always plead that they should please ensure that what they do will pass the test of integrity."

The Initiative for School Excellence and Education Foundation (ISEE) has also threatened legal action against WAEC over the conduct of the 2026 Computer-Based WASSCE.

Through its lawyers, the organisation demanded that WAEC preserve electronic records, including candidate responses, audit logs, server records and scoring data.

It also requested that candidates be allowed to inspect their responses and understand exactly how their scripts were marked.

The group further called for an independent technical audit of WAEC's CBT platform.

ISEE founder Alex Onyia questioned how WAEC standardised candidates who sat different versions of the examination, especially after reports of question leaks in some centres.

He challenged the examination body to make its grading process more transparent.

"When WAEC carried out its standardisation, were candidates from fundamentally different examination conditions treated as one population?"

He also demanded: "Show us the data."

According to Onyia, WAEC should publish raw score distributions, grading thresholds and explain how candidates can challenge their results if they believe mistakes were made.

He maintained: "This is not an attack on WAEC. It is a demand for accountability."

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Despite the growing criticism, WAEC has defended the integrity of the 2026 WASSCE results.

The council said the examination followed its established procedures and that every candidate's script went through multiple stages of marking, moderation and quality checks supervised by experienced subject experts.

WAEC also urged candidates, schools and parents not to rely on social media claims, advising anyone with concerns to contact the council directly through its official offices and communication channels.

The controversy has reminded many Nigerians of the 2025 UTME crisis, when then-JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, publicly apologised after admitting technical errors affected some candidates' results.