THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

By

Comrade Oluajo Babatunde - National Secretary, Zero Corruption Coalition

Nothing reveals the dire state of education in Nigeria than the recently released cut off
marks for admission into Federal Government Colleges otherwise called Unity schools. In
the cut off scores released by the Federal Ministry of Education, Yobe and Zamfara has a
cut-off score of 2 for male and 27 for female while Zamfara had a cut off score of 2 for
females and 4 for males. States like Sokoto, Taraba and Kebbi had between 3 and 27 1 as cut
off scores for admission into the Federal Government Colleges.

In its justification of the ridiculous cut off scores, the Federal Ministry of Education premised
its decision for such ridiculously low cut off scores on the “collective intelligence of all
students sitting exams who hail from the same state at that time 2”. This is despite the
Ministry admission of the fact that “the students do not necessarily have a lower mental
capacity to grasp concepts”.

The Ministry was to however admit the real cause of the ludicrous cut off marks when it said
in the same statement that “Perhaps, we should note that a major reason why these
students score so low in examinations is that the state of education in Northern Nigeria is
poor.  Issues such as general decay of infrastructure; grossly inadequate funding for
education; a serious lack of competent teaching staff; corruption in management of
education; lack of adequate educational plans; poor implementation of educational goals;
and demographic problems have been listed. Yet, each successive state government has
done little more than nod in agreement to the identified issues”.

While the state of education in part of the north may represent an extereme, the reality is
that education in Nigeria is in an embarrassing state of decay. The irresponsibility of
government in provision of quality education for Nigerians in line with section 18 of the
1999 constitution which states that the state shall ensure equal and adequate educational
opportunities for all as well as requiring the government to strive to eradicate illiteracy cuts
across regional divides, levels of government and party lines.

The near absolute neglect of education is vividly captured in the case of Lagos in a DFID
Lagos Private School Census 2010‐2011 Report which noted that “Private schools currently
account for 57 percent of all enrolments in Lagos State, serving 1,385,190 pupils (1,408,420
including projectionsor 202 schools that did not report on enrolment), half of  whom
are girls, in 12,098 schools from kinder-garten through senior secondary levels and that
Seventy‐four percent of private schools are not approved by government and overall only
63 percent of the sector’s 118,785 teachers are qualified. The bulk of enrolments are
accounted for at the lower levels (pre‐primary and early classes of primary 
level) with decreasing

1
http://www.thescoopng.com/shocking-cut-off-point-into-federal-unity-colleges-for-yobe-is-2-taraba-3-
anambra-139-see-full-list/
2
http://www.thescoopng.com/abigail-anaba-common-entrance-cut-off-what-those-figures-actually-mean-
beyond-the-outrage/

1
numbers at junior  and senior secondary levels”3.

  

In Kwara state, the situation is not fundamentally different, with an estimated

417,600 private enrolments, accounting for 52% of all enrolments (pre‐primary
4
through secondary) in the state . The DFID report on Kwara state went on to observe that
“Approval status was not found to have great bearing on the quality of the education
provided and went on to advise the government to re‐think its strategy with regard
to regulation which it said even where enforced  the current rules do not touch on teaching
quality but rather on facilities and teachers’ qualifications on paper”.

With more than half of its school age children being tended to by private merchants, Nigeria
must be one of the few countries in the world that has abdicated its responsibility to
provide education for its citizens while handing such over to private merchants. Not even in
the advanced capitalist countries is the education of the citizenry handed over to private
individuals.

Despite the listing of the education sector as one of the four priority areas of the
transformation agenda of the current administration and “sustained implementation of its
interventions” which the government claims has resulted in-

 improvement in the performance of students in public examinations in 2012 as

reflected in “38.81 percent of candidates that sat for the 2012 Senior School
Certificate Examination obtained credits in five subjects including English and Maths
which is eight percentage points more than the 30.91 percent recorded in 201, 1” 5,
 Remarkable increase in the area of net enrolment ratio and net attendance ratio in
primary education, up from 62.1 percent in 2008 to 70.1 percent in 2012.
 Building and renovation of 742 classroom blocks
 Procurement of 1,214,271 textbooks, amongst others in 2011,
 Refurbishing and equipment of 51 Federal and State Polytechnics with modern
laboratory equipment to encourage participation in Technical and Vocational
Education and training.
 Establishment of 12 New Federal Universities.
 Efforts at the improvement of participation of girls in education, through the
commencement of the construction of special girls schools in 13 States of the
Federation.
 The introduction of the Almajiri Education Programme which has led to
establishment of 124 schools which are in the final stages of hand over to State
governments
 Institutionalization of Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE)
 Remarkable increase in the area of net enrolment ratio and net attendance ratio in
primary education, up from 62.1 percent in 2008 to 70.1 percent in 2012.

3
Lagos Private School Census 2010‐2011 Report- Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN)    
4
Study of private schools in Kwara State Report Number: KW 326-
Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN)
5
Mid-Term Report Of The Transformation Agenda (May 2011 – May 2013)

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  The literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, male and female, increased slightly from 64.3
percent in 2008 to 66 percent in 2012

The fact remains that education is still generally in the doldrums in Nigeria. This much is
attested to by the latest UNESCO Education For All Global Monitoring Report which
measures progress towards the attainment of the six Education for All goals. When
compared with Sub-Saharan average for each of the Education for All goals, Nigeria’s
performance is below the average for practically all the indicators except one.

With a the pre-primary gross enrolment ratio of 14%, primary net enrolment of 58% and 24
million more illiterate adults compared to the period 1985-94, Nigeria according to UNESCO
has one of the worst education indicators globally. Nigeria falls behind the Sub-Saharan
figure of 17% and 76% for gross pre-primary enrolment and primary net enrolment
respectively. While primary net enrolment has fallen from 61% of children of primary school
age in school in 1999 to 58% in 2010, the regional average for Sub-Saharan Africa has grown
from 58% to 76% over the same period. While 93 out of children from the richest
households in Nigeria are expected to start school, only 30 from the poorest households are
expected to start school representing one of the highest of inequality in access to education
in the world according to UNESCO6.

In terms of number of out of school children, while sub-Saharan Africa has a total of 30.6
million out of school, Nigeria alone has 10.5 million kids out of school accounting for more
than one third of out of school children in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to UNESCO this
represents one out of six out of school children globally making Nigeria home to the largest
number of out of school children in the world7.

This is further compounded by late entry into school with more than a quarter (27%) of
children in the first grade being two years older than official starting age.

The cost of education was also identified by UNESCO as another major obstacle towards
universal primary education for poor households. With the cost of sending three children in
a Lagos slum estimated at 46% of the minimum wage, even low-paying private school is out
of the reach of poor households.

In terms of lower secondary school enrolment and youth literacy rate, while Nigeria is at par
with the Sub-Saharan average of 47% and 72% respectively, Nigeria performs below the
Sub-Saharan average for Adult literacy rate which stands at 61% compared to the Sub-
Saharan figure of 63%. According to UNESCO, Nigeria currently has 24 million more illiterate
adults compared to the period 1985-94.

In terms of primary gender parity ratio, Nigeria stands at 0.91 while the Sub-Saharan figure
is 0.93. With a primary pupil-teacher ratio of 36 Nigeria performs better than the Sub-
Saharan average of 43. The secondary gender parity index at 0.88 is another area Nigeria
performs above the Sub-Saharan average of 0.82. However in terms of the quality of
education, it is said not to be of sufficient quality as to allow children in school learn even
the basics. According to the UNESCO report, in 2008, among youngmen aged 15-29years
who left school after six years of schooling, 28% were illiterates, while 39% were semi-

6
Education For All Global Monitoring Report October 2012- UNESCO
7
Education For All Global Monitoring Report October 2012- UNESCO

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literate. Among the women, the figure is said to be worse at 32% illiteracy and 52% semi-
literacy rates.

With an equivalent of over seven million 15-24 year olds (about a quarter of young people)
not completing primary school and over half of rural women having less than a secondary
education and not having the basic skills needed for work, there is a huge skill deficit among
young people in Nigeria.

This stark reality as attested to by the DFID and UNESCO makes mincemeat of whatever the
government claims to have achieved in its mid-term report. Rather than rolling out the
drums in celebration, the Nigerian government should as a matter of immediate priority and
the long term interest of the nation refocus its energy at saving education from its comatose
state with the required massive investment in public education.

Increasingly, there is a trend towards abandoning the funding of education and educational
development to the interventionist agencies. Interventionist agencies remain largely
interventionist and are not a substitute for the duty of governments at all levels to fund and
commit the needed resources to education. While interventionist agencies like TETFUND
has done a yeoman’s job in its effort at stabilizing education at the tertiary level,
government at all levels must be alive to their fundamental duties of investing in the
education of Nigerians.

The administration's midterm report listed achievements by interventionist agencies such as

Universal Basic Education Commission(UBEC) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFUND)
as part of its scorecard. While some of the interventionist agencies have done quite a lot in
towards revitalising education, the continued abandonment of its primary duty of funding
education by government at the various levels have not made the impact of these agencies
felt as it should have been.

Using TETFUND as an example, I will proceed to show how properly focussing

interventionist agencies rather than the abandonment of its primary duty to fund education
by government at the state and federal levels can help such agencies make more impact in
the efforts at stabilising education and ultimately improving on standards.

The TETFUND it may interest us to know was the product of sustained agitation by ASUU for
improved funding of education through the collection of an Education Tax. This struggle led
to the historic 1992 strike by ASUU which culminated in the establishment of an Education
Tax Fund to be administered by a Management Team by the General Babangida ruling junta.

Between 1992-1999 nothing much could be ascribed to this agency. By 1999 the Obasanjo
administration revamped the fund with the promptings of ASUU. Between 1999-2007 this
agency was merely handing out palliatives to beneficiary institutions which cut across all
levels of education in the country. The structural and institutional framework of the laws
setting up the agency was its greatest undoing and led to call for it to be scrapped. However,
by 2007 and with a new government, a new Management Team headed by Prof. Mahmud
Yakubu was appointed to refocus the Fund.

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The law establishing the Fund was amended and a new mandate which restricted
interventions to only Tertiary institutions. This move restored the original concept of ETF as
initiated and negotiated by ASUU with FGN in 1992. Between 2007 and now, the refocusing
has enabled the fund to be consolidated for impact in the following areas-

i. Allocations to beneficiaries increased manifold. Prior to 2007, the highest

amount ever allocated to any University in normal intervention was N58.5m. By
2012, however, each University received N595m in normal intervention. The
allocations to the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education also increased
astronomically8.
ii. In addition to increased normal allocation, the Special High Impact projects were
also introduced under which select tertiary institutions on the equality of geo-
political zones were given special allocations of N3b per university and N1b per
Polytechnic and College of Education (based on the 2.1.1 sharing formula
enshrined in the Act). Each year, 6 universities, 3 Polytechnics and 3 colleges of
education benefitted (i.e. One university and a Polytechnic or College of
Education per zone) benefitted. This is a continuous intervention which is meant
to continue until all institutions benefit in the long run.
iii. Until 2008, the highest amount ever allocated for postgraduate staff training by
ETF was a one-off N1.75m (one million seven hundred and fifty thousand Naira),
an amount that was significantly inadequate The refocusing of TETFUND made it
possible for this sum to be increased substantially to about N80 million resulting
in over 6,000 lecturers benefitting. . This is the highest number of lecturers from
Federal and State tertiary institutions sponsored for PG studies within a 4-year
period since Nigeria's independence in 1960. This is in addition to over 7,000
lecturers who have benefitted from Conference Attendance (CA) initiative
introduced in 2009.
iv. The fund also initiated a National Research Fund for the education sector with a
seed grant of N3b approved and earmarked to support research for national
development in critical sectors such as power, security etc. This is in addition to
the Book Development Fund introduced to support the revitalisation of Journals
(beginning with those of professional/scholarly associations). So far, over 100
journals have benefitted from the sum of only N5m each out of a N2b seed grant.
In addition to journals, the seed grant of N2b is also used to support the
publication of tertiary levels textbooks, including outstanding PhD theses
submitted to the universities.

While  I concede that the  TETFUND has done a good job in its effort at stabilizing education
at the tertiary level, the same cannot be said for other levels of education. The government
would have to be alive to its fundamental duties of investing in the education of Nigerians
and not abandon the funding of education and educational development to interventionist
agencies. Interventionist agencies remain largely interventionist and are not a substitute for
the duty of governments at all levels to fund and commit the needed resources to
education. 

8
TETFUND Quarterly Reports

5
Also, in line with the provisions of section 18 of the constitution, the Nigeran state owes its
citizens a duty in providing them with quality education. Abandoning this to private
merchants is not the way out of the rot in Nigeria’s educational system, rather the way
forward is to prioritise education and see it as an investement in the nation’s human capital
without which its much avowed developmental aspirations cannot be attained.