The troubling scenes that played out across a number of states during the ongoing West African Senior citizen School Certificate Evaluation (WASSCE), where countless candidates were required to sit assessments late into the night due to the late arrival of evaluation materials, represent yet another humiliating failure in the management of an important national exercise.
What makes the scenario even more uncomfortable is that this is not the very first time such an occurrence has taken place. A comparable logistical breakdown was recorded throughout the 2025 WASSCE. The obvious question Nigerians should be asking is: what happened to the lessons that ought to have been gained from in 2015’s experience?
As one of Africa’s foremost examining bodies, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has a responsibility to continuously improve its functional systems and guarantee the smooth conduct of evaluations. It is unacceptable that in 2026, examination products are still coming to centres hours behind schedule, requiring prospects to withstand unneeded stress and unpredictability.
The repercussions of these preventable delays go beyond simple inconvenience. Trainees who have actually prepared properly for their assessments end up being emotionally tired after waiting endlessly for concern documents. The stress and anxiety, tiredness and frustration associated with such hold-ups can considerably impact their concentration and total performance. No prospect needs to undergo such conditions.
It is particularly regrettable that examinations implied to evaluate scholastic skills are now being conducted under conditions more fit to emergency situations. The image of students composing assessments at night under insufficient facilities paints a troubling picture of the state of Nigeria’s education system.
Comparisons with worldwide examination bodies further expose the shortcomings in our system. Evaluations such as Cambridge Checkpoint and IGCSE, administered by Cambridge International Education (CIE), are carried out each year for millions of students across the world without the repeating logistical challenges that have become associated with WASSCE in Nigeria. Evaluation products are generally delivered to centres well ahead of schedule, while strict security procedures guarantee the integrity of the process. Cases of candidates being forced into nighttime examinations due to administrative failures are essentially unprecedented.
This raises a fundamental question: what exactly is Nigeria’s issue?
Beyond WAEC’s logistical drawbacks, the event likewise exposes deeper shortages within the country’s education facilities. Reports from some centres show insufficient electrical power supply during the late-night assessments. This is a severe indictment of a system that has failed to provide fundamental discovering centers in numerous public schools.
Schools are anticipated to take pleasure in trustworthy electricity to support teaching, discovering and using educational products. Yet numerous institutions operate without steady power. Even where public electrical power is unreliable, alternative solutions such as solar power systems and standby generators need to be available. The lack of such arrangements shows years of neglect and underinvestment in education.
The federal and state governments can not get away obligation for this failure. The nighttime assessments witnessed during the continuous WASSCE are symptomatic of a broader rot within the education sector– one that continues to weaken the knowing environment and the future of Nigerian students.
Given the extraordinary circumstances under which numerous prospects sat for these assessments, WAEC need to seriously think about providing afflicted students with another opportunity to compose the affected documents. A fresh evaluation date would ensure that candidates are assessed under fair and favorable conditions instead of under the tiredness and psychological strain brought on by hours of unneeded waiting.
Evaluations are implied to test knowledge, not endurance. Nigerian students deserve better than a system that repeatedly subjects them to preventable challenge. Till WAEC addresses its repeating logistical failures and federal governments invest meaningfully in academic infrastructure, events such as these will continue to diminish public confidence in the country’s examination process.
The 2026 nocturnal WASSCE must function as a wake-up call. Nigeria’s trainees are worthy of proficiency, effectiveness and dignity– not another year of excuses.