Category: Education

• FG unveils policies to tackle national emergency

With bold targets and renewed investments, the Bola Tinubu administration is taking on Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis, but its lasting impact will depend on sustained political will and policy reforms. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI examines the challenges inherent in the programme and how the government can overcome them.

Every morning before the city fully awakens, 13-year-old Taofik Bello is already knee-deep in Lagos trash. In Bariga area, where the streets are narrow and choked with smoke from burning refuse, he moves with purpose — dodging Keke Napeps, avoiding broken glass, and weaving through the chaos of early market hustle.

With a torn sack slung over his shoulders and bare, blistered hands, Taofik picks through piles of waste in search of anything worth selling—plastic bottles, old wires, or crushed cans. The stench is heavy, usually from spoiled food, stagnant water, and diesel fumes, but Taofik is undaunted. 

Some miles away, on the sweltering streets of Oshodi, nine-year-old David runs after moving vehicles in traffic, balancing a basin stacked with sachets of pure water on his small head. Horns blare; engines growl, and drivers shout. But David weaves through it all, barefoot on hot asphalt, his face streaked with sweat and exhaust.

At every rolled-down window, he chants, “Pure water, three for 100 naira!” hoping to make enough to take something home. He should be in school, learning to write his name or solve simple Mathematics. Instead, he spends his days chasing moving cars and dodging danger.

Taofik and David are not exceptions — they’re the norm in a country where poverty has pushed millions of children into roles they were never meant to fill. Across Nigeria, childhood is being rewritten. Instead of schoolbags, children carry loads on their heads. Instead of toys, it’s trays, tools, and trash. Instead of homework, they work to earn some money to survive.

Embedded in culture

In the northern part of the country, the crisis of out-of-school children is deeply tied to religious and cultural practices. Instead of being in classrooms, many children are pushed into the streets, left to roam and beg for survival. This widespread neglect reflects a system that has normalised child poverty and denied countless young people a fair chance at a future.

As inflation spikes and unemployment grips their parents, more children are forced to become breadwinners — contributing to family income through street hawking, scavenging, begging, or hard labour. For many households, a small child’s earnings, however small, make the difference between eating and going hungry.

The Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration clearly understands the magnitude of the crisis and has articulated a fairly robust response. As Nigeria grapples with the world’s highest number of out-of-school children, the administration has taken a bold stance, promising sweeping reforms to reverse this trend. The administration has set a two-year target to return 10 million out-of-school children to the classrooms.

Education Minister Olatunji Alausa said the plan is an offshoot of the reform initiatives of the Federal Government under the Hope for Quality Basic Education programme (Hope-Ed). The minister spoke during this year’s edition of the International Conference on Smart Education (ICSE) organised by the Universal Basic Education (UBEC) in collaboration with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). 

With an estimated 20 million Nigerian children out of school, the scale of the crisis is both staggering and urgent. The administration’s recent moves signal intent, but the real test lies in execution and sustainability.

A promising start

Since taking office, President Tinubu has unveiled a raft of policies aimed at tackling this national emergency. Chief among them is the ambitious pledge to return 10 million out-of-school children to classrooms by 2027. The government has also inaugurated the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, tasked with mainstreaming non-formal education into the broader system and scaling literacy programmes nationwide.

The administration’s Data repository, Out-of-school children, Teachers’ welfare, Skills development (DOTS) framework is a major plank of this agenda. It aims to build an accurate data system for educational planning, prioritise teacher training and welfare, and promote skills acquisition to complement formal learning.

Tinubu has approved significant funding for the renovation of 195,000 classrooms, the construction of 7,700 new schools, the installation of 22,900 boreholes and 28,000 toilets, and the procurement of over 1.6 million school furniture items. Additionally, more than 100 million textbooks and two million teaching aids are to be distributed nationwide.

These initiatives are supported by a renewed push for federal-state collaboration. The government has engaged state governors, urging them to align with the national blueprint and prioritise education in their respective domains. Vocational and technical education is also being promoted to equip the Nigerian youth with skills that match the demands of a changing economy.

Holistic approach

Experts say these initiatives reflect a holistic approach to tackling the out-of-school children crisis, combining infrastructure development, policy reform, and stakeholder collaboration.  The administration’s commitment to education is evident in these multifaceted strategies aimed at creating a more inclusive and effective educational system in Nigeria.

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Dr Davidson Akhimien, a retired military intelligence officer and security consultant, said it is a very laudable idea and would require collaboration between federal and state governments. He said, “A lot of emphasis should be placed on vocational training, by setting up vocational institutions across the country, because not everybody must go to a university. If we want to industrialise our country in the next 20 years, we must begin to provide the skill set that would be required for the workforce to support industrialisation, at least for the lower level. 

“It would also help to reduce the current high unemployment rate in the country. The government should consider giving start-up grants to graduates of vocational training institutes to set up their businesses. In this way, they would create jobs and contribute to our gross domestic product (GDP) and reduce unemployment.  

“Basic education must be formalised as a security and economic development issue. This shift will justify increased funding, prioritisation in conflict zones, and coordination between education and security agencies.”

Beyond good intentions

However, implementation has always been the Achilles’ heel over the years. Billions have been allocated before, with little to show for them. Corruption, bureaucracy, and poor monitoring often drain the impact before it reaches the children who need it most. The real test is not in the amount budgeted, or the detailed plan of action — but in whether it transforms lives at the street level, where kids like Taofik and David are still hustling for scraps.

The country has seen similar blueprints in the past that failed to take root because they were not anchored in law or aligned across the three tiers of government. “While these efforts are commendable, they are not likely to yield visible dividends in the short term—and perhaps not even in the long run—unless critical structural and institutional issues are addressed,” Emmanuel Gabari, a Kano-based broadcaster, social worker and human rights activist, told our reporter.

One such critical structural and institutional issue, he added, is that of an enabling law. He noted, “For the reforms to outlive the Tinubu administration, institutionalising them through legislation, funding frameworks, and federal-state compacts is crucial. Otherwise, they risk becoming another cycle of good intentions derailed by the next election season.”

Lack of legislative backing

The Kano-based activist said many of the programmes are not yet institutionalised. The DOTS framework, for instance, remains an executive initiative without legislative backing. As such, it is vulnerable to discontinuity if political priorities shift or a new administration takes a different path.

Similarly, the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children, although established, still lacks the entrenched legal and financial autonomy required to operate independently of the executive arm. Thus, remains at the policy or programme level and cannot survive political transitions.

Besides, Gabari recalls that new administrations rarely continue programmes begun by their predecessors. He said, “I remember under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, a commission was set up to look into the challenges of the Almajiri education system. As a follow-up on the commission’s report, the administration built a lot of Almajiri schools in the northern part of the country.

“We saw how that project went, like a pipedream. Sadly, it was the very people who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the Almajiri school project of former President Jonathan who kicked against it.

“So, you begin to wonder, what do we want? This pattern repeats across sectors: new governments scrap previous initiatives, even those launched with fanfare but yet to bear fruit.”

Tackling poverty

Beyond legislation and political will, any reform effort must also reckon with Nigeria’s deeper socioeconomic realities. Dr Akhimien reflects this perspective in the following paragraphs. He agrees with Gabari’s views in several respects. Like the Kano-based activist, he said the execution of the current policy would determine how far the Tinubu administration would go in bringing down the number of out-of-school children in the country.

For instance, he argued that bringing millions of children back to school also entails a reduction of poverty, particularly among some vulnerable groups. He added, “As Nigeria’s economic crisis deepens, millions of children are being left behind—hungry, uneducated, and invisible. The high level of poverty poses a major challenge to the rights of the child despite the country’s adoption of the 2003 Child Rights Act.

Insecurity

“Tackling insecurity in conflict-affected zones, especially in the north, is also key because many schools remain closed due to insecurity. The government must prioritise safe schooling by protecting education infrastructure and deploying security or community-based strategies to make school environments safe.”

The security expert said the National Assembly must enact an enabling law to support the new policy. He enjoined the government to criminalise some parents’ refusal to send their children or wards to school “because they are stealing the future of such children”. He added, “At least, with the funding of basic education by the government, parents have no excuse not to send their children to school.”

The retired military officer said the problem is complex, particularly in the north, because it is embedded in the region’s cultural practices. He noted, “However, with focused, culturally sensitive solutions, it is possible to change the narrative. Curbing the crisis in the north requires a multi-pronged approach that tackles both the root causes and the systemic gaps.

“These include reforming the Almajiri education by integrating it into the formal education system, with religious studies, so children can gain literacy, numeracy, and life skills alongside Quranic teachings. Government and religious leaders need to work together to modernise the system.”

Elite manipulation

He said it is erroneous to blame religion for the menace of out-of-school children in the north. His words: “It is a fallacy to say the problem lies in religion. Islam does not discourage education. It is the northern elite that have somehow manipulated the masses to shun Western education to keep them from seeing the light. Education is light, and light leads to freedom, liberty.

“Once they deprive these people of education, they are deprived of their rights. The problem isn’t religion—it’s elite manipulation. What the civil society groups should do is probably to demystify this thing about religion, Boko Haram, which means no to Western education. It’s all a lie. Most northern leaders have children in Ivy League schools in the West.”

Another strategy is through creating awareness by running targeted campaigns to shift cultural perceptions about the value of formal education, especially for boys in traditional Quranic schools and girls often kept out due to early marriage or domestic roles.

This can be done by engaging and collaborating with religious leaders and traditional rulers to champion education from within the cultural framework, making it easier for communities to accept reform. Deep-rooted practices such as Almajiri education must be modernised, not abolished, through integration with formal schooling.

Lack of political will

Dr Akhimien said the private sector and civil society organisations, which are major stakeholders, must also be integrated into the government’s educational policy. He said, “Whatever strategy is being adopted, the private sector and CSOs should be integrated more formally into the process. These groups often have deeper reach at the grassroots level and can help drive enrollment, monitor progress, and fill capacity gaps.”

The retired military intelligence officer said a mass mobilisation campaign should be developed and propagated on social and traditional media channels. “They must be produced in different indigenous languages, so that they come close to the heart of every Nigerian,” he added.

In addition, the political calendar presents a significant obstacle. With elections held every four years and campaigns beginning two years into the life of a new administration, there is often a lack of continuity between administrations because the education sector is largely under state control.

Education, which is largely controlled at the state level, suffers from fragmented implementation. Collaboration with state governments and international partners is essential to advance reform goals. Even at that, success depends on political alignment and long-term commitment across party lines and administrations.

Governors from different political parties or with competing priorities may not fully buy into Tinubu’s federal initiatives. This decentralisation, while constitutionally appropriate, fragments the national education response and hinders uniform implementation.

Funding challenge

Moreover, funding remains a perennial challenge. The Federal Government’s budgetary allocations to education in the last 10 years have hovered between five to nine per cent. This is against UNESCO’s recommendation that countries should allocate between 15 to 20 per cent of their national budgets to education.

The bulk of education spending often goes to recurrent expenditure (salaries, overheads) rather than capital investments (schools, tech, and infrastructure).

Despite the launch of multiple initiatives (e.g., UBEC, BESDA, Safe School Initiative), actual funding for implementation remains limited.

Implementation capacity is weak, and budgeted amounts are often poorly disbursed or underutilised. Reliance on federal allocations further exposes education funding to oil price volatility, political transitions, and economic shocks.

At the state level, education remains underfunded, despite being a constitutional responsibility. Most states allocate between 10 and 15 per cent of their budgets to education. However, actual disbursement and impact vary widely, as political will and capacity constraints affect delivery,

Besides, federal counterpart funding from UBEC usually goes unclaimed in many cases. This is due to poor budget planning or the inability to provide matching grants. Also at the state level, recurrent expenditure dominates—largely salaries—while capital spending (school building, books, ICT) remains low.

Dedicated financing mechanism

Without a dedicated and protected education financing mechanism, long-term sustainability remains doubtful.

There is also the issue of capacity. Many of the institutions tasked with implementing the current reforms suffer from inadequate manpower, poor training, and limited digital infrastructure. For instance, real-time data tracking of school attendance and enrollment—a key part of the DOTS plan—requires advanced systems and trained personnel that are currently in short supply.

Gabari, a United Nations Youth Parliament Ambassador, believes that Nigeria is not ready for such innovation for several reasons. He argued: “The administration is also talking about digital tracking systems to harness data for planning purposes. However, we should be mindful that these systems are new in our clime and are not yet integrated into the mainstream of our civil service operations or the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs).

“The problem with innovations like these again is that we are back to square one. Where is the electricity to power the computer systems? Electricity is pivotal to every other sector because we need it to power the operations of small businesses, activities in our schools, among other things.”

Governance, a relay race

The Youth Parliament ambassador said development is not a one-day business. For it to take place, he added, there must be continuity in governance. He said, “It’s like a relay race where an incumbent leader must transfer the baton to the incoming one to continue. Nigeria has some of the best policies in the world, but as I said earlier, we are not concerned about continuity or leveraging on existing platforms.

“Incoming administrations often abandon existing projects, assuming a new system must replace them, regardless of merit. Like the proverbial saying that one should not throw the baby away with the bath water, the new government must look at what is not working well in an existing project and fix it, rather than jettisoning the entire thing and beginning afresh.

“It is only when our leaders develop the mindset of focusing on the implementation of existing projects, rather than insisting on the one initiated by the new administration for political expediency, that we will move forward. It’s more like playing politics with the country’s development.”

Finally, apart from legislative entrenchment of the policies, experts say stronger coordination mechanisms must exist between federal and state governments. This could include performance-based grants that reward states for achieving specific education milestones, as well as formal compacts that commit governors to shared targets.

The administration must recognise that tackling the out-of-school children crisis is not just a social policy but a national security and economic development issue. Education should be treated as strategic infrastructure, as essential as roads, power, and defence.

Conclusion

The Tinubu administration has laid a promising foundation. Yet, unless the outlined reforms are institutionalised, adequately funded, and sustained across administrations, they risk joining the graveyard of abandoned policies.

Nigeria stands at a crossroads. The opportunity to lift millions of children out of poverty and ignorance is within reach — but only if the country moves from promise to practice, from pilot to permanence.

The cost of failure is not just educational — it’s economic, social, and existential. Will this administration be the one to finally break the cycle? Or will another generation of children be lost to promises not kept?