The National Examinations Council (NECO) has officially announced the release of the 2025 May/June Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results, ending the anticipation that surrounded the outcome amid concerns about the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) admission deadlines.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, NECO’s Registrar, Professor Dantani Wushishi, disclosed that the examination achieved a pass rate of 60.26%. This indicates that out of approximately 1.3 million candidates who participated, 818,492 attained at least five credits, including compulsory subjects such as English Language and Mathematics.
Although this pass rate reflects a slight decline from the 60.55% recorded in 2024, it remains consistent with NECO’s performance over the past five years, which has hovered around the 60% mark-61.60% in 2023 and 60% in 2022.
Furthermore, the Registrar highlighted that 84.26% of candidates earned five credits or more regardless of their performance in English and Mathematics, showing a modest improvement from the 83.90% achieved the previous year.
The 2025 May/June SSCE was conducted from Monday, June 16 to Friday, July 25, 2025, with a total of 1,358,339 candidates sitting for the exams-680,292 males and 678,047 females. This figure is slightly lower than the 1,367,210 candidates who initially registered (685,514 males and 681,696 females).
For comparison, the 2024 internal SSCE had 1,367,736 candidates, comprising 702,112 males and 665,624 females.
Professor Wushishi also revealed that 1,622 candidates with special needs participated in the 2025 exams. The breakdown includes 941 candidates with hearing impairments, 191 visually impaired, 100 with albinism, 95 diagnosed with autism, 110 with low vision, and 185 with Adermatoglyphia. This number represents a decrease from the 2,267 special needs candidates recorded in 2024.
Significantly, the 2025 internal SSCE introduced a pilot Computer-Based Testing (CBT) option alongside the traditional Paper-Pencil Testing (PPT) format. The CBT was piloted in select centers within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, with plans to expand this mode for the external exams scheduled for November/December.
Looking ahead, the 2026 examinations for both WAEC and NECO will fully transition to the CBT format. This shift will make CBT mandatory for all candidates, focusing exclusively on computer-based theory questions, unlike the hybrid approach employed this year.
Also Read: How to check your NECO 2025 result online
NECO 2025: Key Issues and Observations
The Registrar reported a significant reduction in examination malpractice cases, with 3,878 incidents recorded in 2025 compared to 10,094 in 2024-a remarkable 61.5% decrease. This trend aligns with a steady decline in malpractice over recent years, following 12,030 cases in 2023 and 13,595 in 2022.
Despite the relief brought by the result release, there have been widespread concerns about the delay. Although the exams concluded on July 25, the marking process spanned from August 14 to August 31, 2025, according to Professor Wushishi.
The results were published 54 days after the final examination paper was administered. While the Registrar did not directly address the delay concerns, it is understood that the period between August 31 and September 16 was dedicated to thorough verification and finalization of the results.
The timing of the results release is critical, especially considering the admission timelines for tertiary institutions nationwide. The NECO results arrived roughly four months after the 2025 UTME results and nearly seven weeks following the 2025 WAEC results.
Although the exams were completed in July, many had anticipated the results to be available by early September to allow candidates sufficient time to upload their O-level results on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) portal and meet admission deadlines.
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