Scam posts falsely claim Ethiopian university entrance exam results have been published
- Published on August 14, 2025 at 13:23
- 4 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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The post in Afaan Oromoo, one of Ethiopia’s major languages, claims: “The results of the Grade 12 National Examination have been released.”
“From this moment, all students may check their results using the links provided below,” the post adds. It was published on Facebook on August 5, 2025, and has been shared more than 80 times since.
The post contains a shortened form of a link that purports to lead to the official portal to check exam results.
The text is accompanied by a photo of Berhanu Nega, Ethiopia's education minister, and a photo collage showing several Ethiopian students and their corresponding exam results. The Facebook account that shared the post has published several examples of similar content since July 2025.
Similar posts were also shared on Facebook here.
Education reforms
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has implemented significant education reforms in the past few years, including the introduction of a new competency-based curriculum and stricter examination regulations (archived here).
As part of these changes, Grade 12 national exams — which determine students’ eligibility for university or other higher education programs — have been moved from high schools to public university campuses in an effort to strengthen supervision and curb cheating.
Since this requirement was introduced, however, the pass rate has dropped sharply. AFP reported in October 2023 that only 3% of Ethiopia’s high school students passed the university entrance exam in the 2023 academic year (archived here).
Similarly, only about 5% passed in the 2024 academic year (archived here).
Experts attribute these low results to a shortage of adequate teaching materials, insufficient preparation for students and insufficient teacher training.
However, the results of the 2025 Grade 12 national exams have not yet been released.
Results not released
AFP Fact Check reviewed the official website of Ethiopia's National Educational Assessment and Examination Agency (NEAEA) and established that the results have not yet been released.
The website contains an official announcement about the exam that reads: “NEAEA Grade 12 Result 2025: The result will likely be announced on September 10, 2025.”
In the past years the exams were also released in early September.
Scam blog
When clicked, the link shared in the posts, which allegedly directs users to the official result-checking portal, actually leads to an unrelated blog impersonating the agency.
The impostor site, named “My Blog”, consists solely of a homepage displaying the text “Grade 12 Result (2017)” — with “2017” referring to the Ethiopian calendar year, which corresponds to 2025 in the Gregorian calendar.
It also features the logo of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. However, no exam results are actually published on the site.
Unlike many scam websites, it does not request personal contact information or bank details. Instead, it appears the Facebook account sharing the false claim is aiming to generate high social media engagement.
In contrast, the official website of the NEAEA contains multiple pages, including sections for news, exam results, and lists of public universities.
AFP Fact Check looked up the blog’s domain through Who.is — a public database tool used to find information about registered internet sites, such as domain names.
The results revealed that the domain was registered in April 2024 in California, United States, through domain provider Dynadot (archived here).
AFP Fact Check reached out to the NEAEA for further comment, and this article will be updated if they reply.
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