The West African Examinations Council has withheld the results of 167,486 candidates, representing 8.59 per cent of those who sat the 2026 Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination for School candidates, over alleged examination malpractice.
The figure, however, represents a decline from the 9.7 per cent recorded in 2025.
This was disclosed by the Head of WAEC Nigeria National Office, Dr. Amos Dangut, who announced the release of the results in Lagos on Wednesday.
Dangut said the council withheld the affected results due to various infractions, including the increasing use of mobile phones in examination halls despite the existing ban and organised cheating in some schools, Vanguard reports.
He emphasized that the persistent use of cell phones in examination halls despite existing bans, alongside organized cheating in certain schools, remained major nagging issues for the examination body.
He added that some supervisors and invigilators found assisting candidates in malpractice had been arrested and would face disciplinary action through the relevant state ministries of education.
The 2026 examination marked the second edition of the Computer-Based WASSCE for School Candidates, following the introduction of the format by WAEC.
Dangut said the council introduced several innovations, including the Digital Examiner Mark System to improve the speed of processing results, serialisation of question papers to curb malpractice, and a new portal that allows candidates to generate e-PINs directly for checking their results.
The examination was conducted between April 24 and June 19, 2026, with 102,708 examiners involved in marking across 88 marking venues.
Dangut, who described the briefing as his third and final engagement as WAEC Nigeria National Office head, said candidates sponsored by states indebted to the council would not have their results released until the outstanding payments were cleared.
