Nigeria’s Education Sector In 2024, was marked by significant events that sparked conversation, controversies and calls for reform. In this recap, NewsNGR highlights five key events that made headlines in 2024.
Fake degree certificate
The education sector in Nigeria started the year 2024 with a shocking revelation, thanks to the investigation by undercover journalist, Umar Audu. The investigative report exposed how a Cotonou university accredited by both the Benin Republic and the Nigerian Government issues a degree certificate in one month, revealing the corruption by immigration officials at the Seme border and the flaws of the NYSC system.
The story led to the Federal Government’s suspension of evaluation and accreditation of degree certificates from tertiary institutions in Benin and Togo.
The then Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman also inaugurated a Committee to investigate degree certificate racketeering in the education sector.
The minister had urged the six-man committee to examine the veracity of the allegations of degree certificate racketeering within both foreign and local private universities in Nigeria.
The minister had also threatened to sack any civil servant found to have acquired certificates from illegal universities.
18-year age limit for entry into tertiary institutions
Another issue that raised controversy in the sector in 2024 was the age limit for entry into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The minister had announced the age limit for admission to be 18 years. Mamman had pegged the 18-year admission benchmark into tertiary institutions during the 2024 Policy Meeting on admissions organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The decision was however met with stiff rejection from many stakeholders in the sector.
However, the present Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, had reversed the decision, setting the age limit at 16 years.
Sack of the Minister of Education
In October of 2024, the minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman alongside four other ministers were relieved of their duties by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Mamman was the Vice Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja, before his appointment by the Tinubu-led administration in 2023.
The former Director General of the Nigerian Law School, prioritized skills acquisition during his tenure.
Notably, he announced plans to review the merger of federal technical colleges and science schools, aiming to unbundle them and potentially enhance vocational training.
Also, Mamman’s removal came two weeks after the unveiling of the new curriculum for basic education in Nigeria which was scheduled to commence, January 2025.
Under the new curriculum, pupils in basic schools will be required to acquire at least two skills.
The skills include vocations such as plumbing, tiling, hairstyling, floor works, POP and solar installation are included in the new curriculum.
While giving his account of stewardship in one year, two months ago, Mamman stated that so far, a total of four million out of school children have been enrolled into schools nationwide with the Federal Capital Territory registering not less than 20,000 children.
Mamman was replaced by the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Morufu Olatunji Alausa.
ASUU continuous threat of strike action
There was widespread uncertainty and anxiety over the continuous warning by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of an impending strike action in 2024.
ASUU’s demands are the implementation of several agreements it reached with the Federal Government , including the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement.
Some of the issues in dispute include revitalisation funds for public universities, payment of outstanding earned academic allowances, and release of withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and third-party deductions of ASUU members.
Other issues include stoppage of illegal recruitments; proliferation of public universities/abuse of universities’ laws, regulations and processes; and removal of universities from the treasury single account and new IPPIS vis-a-vis to herald the autonomy of our universities.
However, the President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, in a recent interview stated that the union delayed the proposed industrial action in order to give the Federal Government the benefit of the doubt and enough time to address the union’s concerns.
He added that by January, 2025, the leaders of the union will reconvene to take a decisive direction if nothing is done by the government.
Out-of-school children still on the rise
Lastly, no year passes by without Nigerians worrying about the increasing number of out of school children. According to UNICEF, Nigeria’s education system faces an alarming crisis, with 10.2 million children of primary school age, and another 8.1 million of junior secondary school age out of school, with 74 percent of children aged 7–14 lacking basic reading and math skills.
The Federal Government has pledged its commitment to ensure the reduction of the number. One of its initiatives was to mop up street children and enrol them to school.
In November, the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children’s Education handed over 22,307 mopped-up out-of-school children to the FCT Ministry of Education.
Idris noted that 22,307 children identified and removed from the six area councils of the territory will be enrolled in various schools across the territory.
He had commended the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, for his support and called on other state governments to emulate the initiative to return out-of-school children to the classroom.