The senate has summoned Tunji Alausa, minister of education, and Amos Dangut, head of the national office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), over new guidelines for the 2025/2026 senior secondary certificate examination (SSCE).
The resolution followed a motion sponsored by Sunday Karimi, senator representing Kogi west, who said the guidelines altered subject requirements for the senior secondary students preparing for the 2025/2026 May/ June examinations.
Karimi warned that the sudden changes to the guidelines could lead to mass failure, noting that candidates would be compelled to sit for papers for which they were not adequately prepared.
“The guidelines require that all SS3 students nationwide are required to adopt the new curriculum immediately, despite the fact that the guidelines were initially scheduled to operate in the next two years and be applicable to pupils who are currently in SS (senior secondary school) one and who are scheduled to write WAEC SSCE in 2027/2028,” he said.
“Subjects such as computer studies, civil education and ‘all previous trade subjects’ have been removed from the WAEC (West African Examination Council) senior secondary school certificate examination, as the courses are no longer offered nor to be examined in the exams slated for May/June 2026, despite years of preparation by senior secondary school pupils in Nigeria.
“With the removal of these three subjects (computer studies, civic education and all previous trade subjects), all pupils across all specialisations and combinations (be it sciences, humanities or business courses) are left with a maximum of just six courses each, despite the examination council’s requirement of a minimum offering of eight and maximum offering of subjects/courses for WAEC senior secondary certificate registration and examination.
“This implies that each pupil will have be- tween two and three courses to be examined upon in May/June next year, despite never offering the courses before and with abysmal preparation.
“Although the introduction of new trade subjects such as beauty and cosmetology, fashion design and garment making, livestock farming, computer hardware and GSM repairs, solar photovoltaic installation and maintenance, and horticulture and crop production are commendable, insisting that students without prior education on these subjects should be examined thereon in May/ June 2026 will have negative implications on the students’ exams and quality of examination results and standards.”
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