An African proverb says, “The person who has never built a hut should not attempt a Palace. ” This proverb speaks profoundly to the importance of ascertaining competence and capacity before undertaking complex tasks. It suggests that one must first be certain of his ability to accomplish a crucial task before embarking on it.
It is rather sad that we are yet again faced with another round of excuses and apologies for the second time in one year by another examination body, for needless but costly blunders that could have been avoided. When the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) admitted that technical glitches in the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) resulted in the generally poor performance of the candidates, and apologised to the entire country rescheduling a total number of 379,997 candidates for a resit, we thought that was the last we would see this year. Little did we know that the West African Examination Council (WAEC)will also follow suit. When the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE)results were released last week with just 38.32 percent of the candidates scoring five credits and above, including Mathematics and English, the announcement generated public outrage with yours truly also weighing in on the matter.
The WAEC’s Head of National office (HN0) suggested that the probable cause of the mass failure was the serialisation technique adopted by the council for the core subjects of Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics, which prevented examination malpractice for these subjects. However, situation arising has now revealed that the exam body itself was more culpable in the initial mass failure than earlier disclosed.
On Friday, the 8th of August 2025, just 4 days after the result’s initial release, WAEC released a revised version of the 2025 SSCE results. This time, with 62.96 per cent of the candidates obtaining five credits and above with the inclusion of Mathematics and English.
In a press briefing, the HNO apologised for the discrepancy, admitting that a serious error in the marking of serialised papers led to the misrepresentation of candidates’ performance. He acknowledged the emotional ordeal that candidates, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders must have faced. He, however, concluded that the council is doing everything to ensure the dismal situation does not reoccur.
As much as WAEC’s apologies and efforts to rectify the unfortunate situation is commendable. Unfortunately, it has reinforced the depth of an existing problem and heightened public distrust. As such, one can not but wonder for how long Nigerians would be made to experience this kind of ugly situation in the coming days.
No doubt, the adoption of Computer based testing (CBT), biometric results checking, and paper-serialisation systems aims to curb exam malpractices, improve efficiency, and modernise the process. All these continued technical glitches, however, only reveal unpreparedness in infrastructure, systems, and readiness for an advancement of that scale. The rush to fully implement CBT, particularly for an examination at the scale and complexity of the SSCE, without first putting the proper machineries in place, employing robust stress-testing and engaging adequate fail-safe mechanisms, may continue to backfire.
In a country where digital infrastructure is inconsistent, many examination centres, especially in rural areas, lack stable power supply, reliable Internet, or trained personnel to manage technical issues. Insisting on CBT at such national scale without first addressing these foundational gaps, in my humble opinion, is only sending an invitation to pandemonium and chaos on a national scale, if these last two experiences are anything to go by.
To avoid future disasters, therefore, I strongly recommend a phased implementation technique. Before a nationwide rollout, CBT and other digital systems should first be piloted across multiple contexts – urban, peri-urban, and rural pilot tests should be conducted. Lessons from these pilot tests should thereby inform infrastructure upgrades and training.
Most importantly, infrastructure readiness must be ascertained. Reliable electricity, Internet, and power backup systems (power generators, offline capacity, technical support) must be in place. Without these, systems will crumble under actual exam conditions.
Capacity building is equally of paramount necessity. Training invigilators, technicians, and supervisors is very vital. Technological systems are only as good as the people who run them. A poorly trained user can undermine even the most robust platform.
And, finally, stakeholder engagement is highly important. Engaging schools, students, parents, and tech partners from the outset builds shared ownership. Inputs from stakeholders help keep initiative grounded in reality rather than wishful thinking.
Among Nigeria’s examination bodies, there is no doubt, the urgency to modernise, improve fairness, and curb examination malpractices. But ambition without readiness invites collapse. Going forward, WAEC, and indeed, other exam bodies, should slow down and tred with caution. Do all that is structurally and operationally necessary before embarking on full scale digitalisation. Only then can they truly achieve the goal of fair, modern and reliable national examinations devoid of national embarrassment.
Olusegun Hassan, Ph.D
Public Policy Analyst and Social Commentator writes from Ibadan
