Story highlights
- Stakeholders in Nigeria’s education sector express that President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda reforms and policies have not been fulfilled, with the sector’s status quo remaining unchanged.
- Persistent issues include high numbers of out-of-school children, frequent strikes by labour unions, limited access and equity in education, and concerns over the global competitiveness of the education system.
- Despite some initiatives like the student loan scheme and various policy reforms, challenges such as insufficient budget allocation and potential long-term sustainability issues remain.
Stakeholders in the Education sector have stated that the reforms and policies in President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in the sector, have not yet been fulfilled, with the status quo remaining the same, as various policies yet to materialize.
For instance, one year after President Tinubu resumed office, there’s still a high number of out-of-school children, frequent strike actions by labor unions in tertiary institutions, limited access and equity in education, and the government-industry-academic nexus and concern over the global competitiveness of the education system.
In a phone interview with Elvis Boniface, an education and Media Development Expert and founder of Edugist, he puts it that the president’s initial promises on education have not been fulfilled, leading to struggles across all levels of the education sector amidst economic challenges, with the student loan initiative now being closely watched for potential intervention.
He says, “I think if we want to score this president, maybe a five over 10 in educational performance.
“When INEC declared Tinubu winner, he laid a strong emphasis on education, stating that children will spend four years in the universities for a four-year course….but then May 29th came, and we reviewed his speech as a president. There was nothing about education.
“The subsidy removal brought the Nigerian economy to its knees, and it affected education in all areas.
“The one everyone is looking out for now among the 13 pillars of education is the student loan, whose portal just opened last Friday and we are looking at how the outcome is going to be. We think that the presidency should somehow intervene.
“In June, he dissolved the governing board of all Nigerian universities. It has taken him one year to constitute a board that ASUU has not agreed with, and so I think they have gone back to the drawing board to know what to do”.
Education reforms
Since resuming office on May 29th, 2023, President Bola Tinubu approved various policies and made reforms to overhaul the education sector, to improve enrollment, learning, skill development and ensure academic security for Nigerian children.
This formed part of the administration’s “Renewed Hope Education Roadmap for Nigeria” which is to create a reformed education sector which provides access to quality education for all capable of producing a highly skilled and educated workforce.
The overall aim of the agenda is to reduce by a great percentage, the number of Out-of-School Children, integrate skills into the entire education system to address the learning crisis and reduce unemployment and build a reliable and authentic database for the sector.
In keeping with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, The Federal Ministry of Education led by Prof. Tahir Mamman developed eight (8) focus areas.
Out of these focus areas, the approved policies are captured as DOTS, an acronym representing: Data Repository, Out-of-School Children Education, Teacher Training & Development, and Skill Development & Acquisition.
Based on the focus areas, here are the achievements of the administration in Education in the past year as outlined by Prof. Mamman at a citizen and stakeholders’ engagement:
The establishment of a National Education Repository and Data Bank
The aim of this is to collect, collate, and warehouse all education records from 1932 through a dedicated website.
The Federal Ministry of Education under Prof. Tahir Mamman had focused engagements with development partners on practical impactful projects in Nigeria.
The key focus was to ensure that Nigeria determines her needs and intervention areas based on situation analysis and gaps identified.
President Tinubu approved a comprehensive national census of schools, teachers, and students in Nigeria to address the lack of coordinated data critical for effective educational planning.
This initiative will provide detailed information on school infrastructure, teacher qualifications, and student demographics, supporting targeted educational interventions and teacher training. Data will be monitored in real-time via the portal.
In addition, the Ministry with the aim of preserving the country’s heritage, carried out a documentation of unexploited Nigerian heritage in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin.
This includes an ongoing collection and documentation of all alphabets in mother languages and the establishment of 40 book clubs in secondary schools.
Conversion of academic manuscripts into books
In order to encourage the available textbooks with Nigerian contents and promote Nigerian values, the Ministry facilitated the conversion of academic manuscripts into books, resulting in the publication of 80 textbooks.
The Ministry also identified books with contents relevant to modern learning in different fields, to this end, up to 3,118,701 assorted books and 376,262 e-resources were acquired.
A National virtual library was created which can be accessed at www.virtuall.nln.gov.ng.
Reduction in out-of-school children through the intervention in non-formal levels of education
The Ministry of Education intervened in some key areas in the non-formal level of education such as Almajiri and Tsangaya education which were required to help girls and boys who lost their first chance at school get a second chance.
To this effect, grants were released to 312 Integrated Qur’anic and Tsangaya Education (IQTE) Centers in 24 States and the FCT for the construction of 419 Classrooms, 66 Recitation halls, 25 Recitation shades, 140 Offices, 27 hostels and 225 VIP toilets.
A total of 2,000,000 Out-of-School Children (Almajiris) were enrolled in Basic schools and an Arabic literacy programme with vocational training.
Student Loan Bill
- President Bola Tinubu, on April 3, 2024, signed into law the Student Loans Access to Higher Education (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2024.
- The Act seeks to guarantee sustainable higher education and functional skill development for all Nigerian students and youths.
- The aim is to provide loans to indigent students and prevent them from dropping out of school due to financial constraints.
- The first phase of the student loan scheme went live on the 24th of May, 2023 and can be accessed through its website. The target beneficiaries are students from federal institutions across the country.
Ensuring a more enhanced, transparent and inclusive Federal Scholarship scheme
According to the Mamman, so far 345 beneficiaries under the Bilateral agreements with Foreign Countries have left Nigeria for other countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
- A total of 2,889 students studying Education have received bursary awards, 51 students benefitted from Commonwealth Scholarships and 2,122 others became beneficiaries of the Nigerian scholarship awards.
School renovations and purchase of equipment and furniture
The Ministry renovated 73 classrooms, drilled 46 boreholes, supplied 55 double bunk beds, 559 lockers, 1,100 mats, 6,585 pupils and teachers’ furniture for the benefit of 62,161 Learners.
- 28 Second Chance Schools (Girl-Child Community Centers) were constructed to promote Girl-child education and skill acquisition.
Provision of vocational skills acquisition training
The Ministry equally ensured the provision of Vocational Skills Acquisition Training for 420 participants in ICT, Shoemaking, leather work, catering, and other sundry.
This was done with a dual purpose. First to equip the beneficiaries with skill sets and secondly, to study the process and determine learning curves to be used in rolling out the process on a massive scale.
The Teacher Internship Award
This is an innovation aimed at providing mentorship to young persons in the teaching profession which comes with some token grant to incentivize the process.
- So far, a total of 724 beneficiaries have so far enjoyed the awards. In addition, 35,000 teachers across the country have been trained in the use of ICT in the classroom in addition to the provision of ICT equipment to produce digital content for all 36 States and FCT.
- Reforming tertiary education certifications through conversion and upgrading
- In August 2023, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) announced an online programme for Higher National Diploma (HND) holders to convert their certification to bachelor’s degree (BA/BSc) via online one year top-up with foreign accredited universities.
Challenges and gaps
Nigeria’s recent move to overhaul its approach to education reforms has potential challenges especially in long-term sustainability, especially as regards the student loan bill.
- According to stakeholders, although the bill appears to be a significant step towards improving access to higher education, there is a potential risk of abuse.
- For instance, the removal of strict eligibility criteria and the expanded coverage of loans may increase the risk of loan default and misuse, potentially burdening the fund and affecting its sustainability.
- The leniency towards borrowers facing hardships may create opportunities for fraudulent claims or false statements, potentially undermining the integrity of the loan system and the viability of the fund. It may also introduce legal complexities and challenges in enforcing loan repayment, potentially leading to disputes and delays in recovering funds.
- In a recent interview with TVC, discussing Tinubu’s achievements in the past one year, Japheth Odesanya, a Social Commentator says, “I want to President to look into the implementation proper so that it is not politicized. You know there are fears in some quarters when you have the Board tied to the CBN and there’s also the issue of having connections”.
Also, worth noting is that the education budget failed to meet UNESCO’s benchmark, given President Tinubu’s allocation of only 5.98% of the 2024 budget of N24.08 trillion to the sector.