The National Examinations Council (NECO) has released the results for the 2025 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) External, recording a pass rate of 71.63%.
This announcement was made by the Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim-Wushishi, during a press conference on Wednesday at the council’s headquarters in Minna.
The examination was conducted from November 26 to December 13, 2025, with the marking exercise taking place between January 5 and January 21, 2026.
What they said
Prof. Ibrahim-Wushishi revealed that a total of 96,979 candidates registered for the examination, including 51,823 males (53.43%) and 45,156 females (46.56%). Of these, 95,160 candidates sat for the exam, comprising 50,785 males (53.36%) and 44,375 females (46.63%).
In terms of subject-specific performance:
- 93,425 candidates sat for English Language, with 73,167 (78.32%) obtaining a credit or above.
- 93,330 candidates sat for Mathematics, with 85,256 (91.35%) scoring a credit or above.
Overall, 68,166 candidates (71.63%) obtained five credits or more, including English Language and Mathematics, while 82,082 candidates (86.26%) obtained five credits or more regardless of their English or Mathematics results.
Prof. Ibrahim-Wushishi also reported that 9,016 candidates were caught for various forms of malpractice, marking a 31.7% increase from the 6,160 cases recorded in 2024.
More Insights
He also disclosed that five supervisors were recommended for blacklisting for aiding malpractice, including two from the Federal Capital Territory and one each from Kano, Adamawa, and Ondo states. Additionally, four examination centres were recommended for de-recognition: two from Niger and one each from Yobe and Kano states.
- Candidates are advised to check their results on NECO’s website, www.neco.gov.ng, using their examination registration numbers.
- Prof. Ibrahim-Wushishi further announced the release of the 2026 Automated Staff Posting Calendar (APC), explaining that staff postings will now be randomised.
Staff members can check their posting status online at https://apcic.neco.gov.ng/myapc using their date of birth and file number (excluding the “P” prefix).
Backstory
The release of the 2025 SSCE External results follows NECO’s publication of the 2025 SSCE Internal results in September 2025.
At that time, the council reported that 818,492 candidates, representing 60.26% of the 1,358,339 candidates who sat for the June/July examinations, obtained five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
What You Should Know
NECO, along with other major examination bodies, is preparing for a series of reforms aimed at strengthening credibility, reducing malpractice, and modernising the conduct of public exams.
As part of these efforts, the Federal Government has introduced a unique learner identity number for WAEC and NECO candidates to curb cheating, improve candidate tracking across examination cycles, and support long-term education data management.
The government has also mandated the full adoption of computer-based testing (CBT) for NECO and WAEC, with both objective and essay papers expected to be conducted online by the May/June 2026 examination cycle to modernise the examination system, limit human interference, and align Nigeria’s testing process with international standards.
