Stakeholders have hailed the West African Examinations Council for resolving the technical glitches on its results portal last Friday.
The downtime occurred shortly after the official release of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination on Monday, August 4, 2025.
The exam body was thereby hailed for resolving the issues within the shortest possible time.
A Wednesday statement noted that parents, civil right groups, students, media, and other relevant collaborators in the education sector value chain hailed WAEC’s handling of the critical moment, underscoring its professionalism, transparency, accountability and fidelity to its stakeholders.
The statement noted that, curious about the development and its effect on the academic pursuits of candidates who were preparing for their advanced learning, an independent survey was conducted by Veracity Desk to get feedback from a few stakeholders before the downtime was resolved.
It said the outcome of the survey showed how concerned Nigerians described the council’s action as “most dependable step in crisis management, perception management and ultimately protection of the sanctity of the examination results.”
A parent, Pastor Temitayo Olowookere, who is a perfume merchant at the Trade Fair Complex on Lagos Badagry Expressway, said, “I have a child, cousins, nieces and nephews that I paid for their WAEC fees, and when the release of the results was announced on Monday, we were all happy and eager to check the results, but we later got the information on time that the portal has been temporarily shut down.
“This timely information really helped us. It saved us from wasting time and resources on the internet. We are happy now that the portal is back and running smoothly; the downtime will finally be over. This proactiveness with continuous and timely explanations is highly commendable. WAEC has displayed the most dependable step in crisis and perception management, and ultimately protection of the sanctity of the examination results.”
Similarly, Ibrahim Isa, who identified himself as a member of a Civil Society group in Jalingo, Taraba State, Action for Girl Child Education, said, “What WAEC did this week positively reflects the prestige and glowing records they’ve built over the years. This is a new reform in our education sector whereby integrity and accountability can no longer be compromised in the educational sector. Technical glitch isn’t a problem. It happened in the banking sector, too, especially during their system upgrade, which lasted for months. But how to manage glitches on time is what matters, and also how you communicate to those who are directly or indirectly affected matters most.
“WAEC has set a very good standard by validating its crisis response capability through information management and management of stakeholders’ perception, despite the backlash this may attract from some people who could be impatient or who could possibly feel disappointed.”
A candidate who sat the May/June exams in Abuja, Amarachi Nnamdi, said, “My uncle told me on Monday he would help me to check my results on Tuesday in his office but subsequently called me during his lunch time that it seems there were too many subscribers on the portal and that could have possibly made it impossible for him to log in on Tuesday to check the results.
“But on Wednesday, he later called to say he read online that the WAEC results checker portal was temporarily down. This helped us to stop making any further attempts to log in. He said I should wait until the weekend. WAEC did well by informing us about the glitches. Initially, I was angry, but later, I praised them for telling us the truth behind the glitches and giving us some time on when it would be resolved. They are genuinely proactive from what we saw this week.”
Another candidate, Oghenetega Tadafe, who lives in Agbor but was in Lagos on Friday evening, said, “I was very angry with WAEC, but later, when I saw their explanations and apology, I had no choice but to overlook the flaws. Besides, my dad told me WAEC cannot be blamed at all, that such glitches happen everywhere in the world, even in the United Kingdom and the United States. I think we should give them time and even applaud them for their openness and transparency. Other examination bodies should also emulate this high sense of responsibility.”
