WAEC 2026 Results in Numbers: Credit Rates and More

WAEC announced the 2026 WASSCE results for school candidates on Wednesday, 5 August 2026, at a press briefing at its national office in Yaba, Lagos. The head of WAEC's Nigeria National Office, Dr Amos Dangut, presented the figures, which were reported by Premium Times and other outlets. This page collects them in one place, and says what each number does and does not tell you.

The headline numbers

The first benchmark is the one most universities care about, because many courses ask for credits in English Language and Mathematics. The second measures how many candidates earned five credits in any subjects.

Percentages are shares of those who sat the exam (1,950,726), not of those registered.

Gender breakdown

The percentages in the last row are shares of the whole cohort, not of each gender. Using the same counts, our own arithmetic gives a within-gender rate of about 58.6% for boys and about 64.3% for girls. That is our calculation from the reported figures, not a number WAEC quoted. It shows that girls both sat in slightly larger numbers and reached the benchmark at a higher rate.

Results processing and withheld results

The withheld share fell by 1.11 percentage points. A withheld result is not the same as a failed result: it means WAEC is investigating the candidate or the centre. Candidates whose results are still being processed should keep checking the official portal and follow WAEC's instructions.

Exam dates and format

The 2026 WASSCE for school candidates ran until 19 June 2026. The WAEC timetable coverage gives 21 April as the start, while Premium Times' results report gives 24 April, so we do not state one start date. WAEC's national head said at a briefing on 11 May that at least 450 of the 24,207 registered schools had entered candidates for the computer-based WASSCE (CB-WASSCE), up from fewer than 40 schools in 2025. Daily Trust put that at about 1.8% of schools, which is its own calculation.

In short: most candidates still wrote the paper-based exam in 2026, but the computer-based option grew sharply from a very small base. If you are practising for a CBT format, you are preparing for the direction of travel, not only for JAMB.

How to read these numbers

• A 61.54% benchmark rate does not mean 38.46% "failed". Some of the remainder earned credits in four subjects, or earned five credits without English or Mathematics, or had results withheld or pending. WAEC's second benchmark shows 86.50% earned five credits in some combination of subjects.
• English and Mathematics decide a lot. The gap between 86.50% and 61.54% shows how many candidates reached five credits but missed one or both of those two subjects. That is the part you can plan for.
• The year-on-year drop is small. A 1.42-point fall is a movement, not a collapse. Do not treat one year's rate as a prediction for your own sitting.
• We have not found separate English and Mathematics credit rates for 2026 in the sources we checked, so we do not print them.

What this means for 2027

The proposed 2027 WASSCE window is 11 May to 18 June 2027, with a results target of August 2027. It is a proposal, and WAEC has not published its own timetable. See the WAEC 2027 timetable page, and the 2027 exam calendar for how it sits beside the other exams.

If you want to know how the grades behind these numbers work, read our guide to the WAEC grading system. To understand the body behind the exam, see a short history of WAEC.

What you can do with the data

The practical message is that English and Mathematics are the two subjects where the most candidates lose the five-credit benchmark. If you do one thing to improve your odds, build steady, timed practice in those two, and keep a record of the topics you miss.

Counting the gap

The difference between the two benchmarks is itself informative. Using the reported figures, 1,687,378 candidates earned five credits in some combination of subjects, but 1,200,514 did so including English Language and Mathematics. Subtracting gives 486,864 candidates (our arithmetic) who reached five credits but fell short on the English-and-Mathematics requirement. In a cohort of 1,950,726, that is roughly one in four.

An illustration, not a prediction: if a class of 100 candidates matched the national rates, about 62 would hit the English-and-Mathematics benchmark and about 86 or 87 would earn five credits in any subjects. Your own class will differ, but the shape of the gap is useful for planning.

Common questions

Does "withheld" mean cancelled? Not by itself. WAEC described the 167,486 results as withheld over alleged malpractice, which means they are held while the matter is looked into. What happens next depends on the findings.

How do I check my own result? Use WAEC's official portal. Our guide to how to check your WAEC result covers the process.

Where do the numbers come from? From WAEC's briefing in Lagos on 5 August 2026, as reported by Premium Times and others. We could not open a WAEC statement with the full text, so the figures here are as reported.

ExamPadi has 46,182 practice questions across JAMB, WAEC, NECO and NABTEB, with a timed CBT mode. Free practice is available, with a Pro tier, on Android, iOS, web and Windows.

Practise WAEC English and Mathematics on ExamPadi and track the topics that cost you marks.