983 law students fail 2026 bar final resit exam as failure rate hits 50.3%

A total of 983 candidates have failed the May 2026 bar final (resit) examination, representing 50.3 percent of the 1,955 candidates who sat for the examination.

In a statement on Monday, Aderonke Osho, secretary to the council and director of administration, said the Council of Legal Education (CLE) approved the results at its third quarter hybrid meeting held on Thursday.

“A total of 1,955 candidates sat for the examination. The results are summarised as follows: Pass: 885 candidates. Conditional Pass: 55 candidates. Fail: 983 candidates, Absent: 32 candidates. Withheld: 19 candidates,” the statement reads.

According to the council, the examination recorded an overall pass rate of 45.3 percent, while 54.7 percent of the candidates did not attain the prescribed pass mark.

The failure rate in the 2026 resit is higher than the 36.3 percent recorded in the 2025 bar final resit examination, when 608 out of 1,675 candidates who sat for the examination failed.

This indicates the 2026 resit recorded a 38.6 percent increase in the failure rate compared with the previous year’s resit. (TheCable)