In Summary:
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Former Assistant Minister Isaac Doe claims only 832 or 1.59% of the 51,719 students who sat the 2025 WASSCE in Liberia passed.
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However, a review of WAEC’s official data shows that while 822 students passed with credits in at least five subjects, including English and Mathematics, over 28,500 students passed in five subjects, and more than 83% passed in at least three subjects.
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Therefore, Doe’s claim is misleading, as the overall results reflect a relatively good performance.
Following the release of the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on August 15 in Liberia, Isaac Doe, a former Assistant Minister in the past administration and critic of the current administration, took to Facebook claiming that only 832 or 1.59% of the 51,719 students who sat the examination successfully passed.
Doe made this claim to highlight a mass failure under the current administration, describing it as a “shame and disgrace”.
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination or WASSCE is a standardized test administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in Anglophone West African countries. It serves as a school-leaving qualification for students completing secondary education in these countries.
The Claim
An excerpt from Doe’s post reads, “Only 832 or 1.59% of the 51,719 students who sat the 2025 WAEC successfully passed. This is a shame and a disgrace.”
Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we reviewed the video of the August 15 press conference held by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), during which Mr. Dale Gbotoe, the head of WAEC Liberia, released the official results.
Mr. Gbotoe disclosed that a total of 51,719 candidates wrote the exams across 379 centers across Liberia. Out of this number, Gbotoe said 822 candidates earned credits in at least five subjects, including English and Mathematics.
Additionally, 28,576 candidates scored pass marks in five subjects, representing a little ove 55%, and 37,081 candidates, representing 71% obtained passes in at least four subjects, while 83.08% passed in at least three subjects, which WAEC considers the benchmark for a pass.
He described these results as reflecting an overall good performance, urging students and schools to build on this performance in subsequent years.
Conclusion
Based on a review of the press statement, we conclude that Doe’s claim that only 822 students successfully passed this year’s WASSCE Exams is misleading.
WAEC’s official data shows that 822 students passed at least five subjects, including the core subjects, while a much larger group — 28,587 students — passed in any five subjects.
