One million children returned to school in two years — FG

The Federal Government says it has enrolled one million out-of-school children into classrooms over the past 24 months, reducing the number of children outside the formal education system across the country.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday at the 2026 Annual Education Summit of the Education Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja, attributing school dropouts largely to poverty.

According to him, the estimated number of out-of-school children has declined from between 15 million and 17 million as a result of government interventions aimed at expanding access to education.

To sustain the progress, Alausa said the Federal Government is implementing five major social protection programmes, including a $500 million World Bank Community Resilience project and the $1.2 billion HOPE programme, which focuses on health, basic education and economic empowerment.

He added that the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) has also helped enrol more than one million girls in school through conditional cash transfers and the provision of learning materials.

The minister said the increased enrolment has been supported by investments in school infrastructure through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

According to him, nearly 88,000 schools have been rehabilitated, more than 6,000 classrooms constructed, while 1.7 million instructional materials have been distributed nationwide.

Alausa also urged journalists to utilise the Federal Government’s Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal to monitor education indicators and hold state governments accountable for service delivery.

He said the platform provides real-time data on school enrolment, teacher-pupil ratios and educational facilities across the country.

On tertiary education, the minister said Nigeria’s public universities have maintained a stable academic calendar, noting that there has been no strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the last three years.

He added that students admitted into universities in 2023 are expected to graduate on schedule next year.

Alausa also said Nigeria recorded an improvement in global university rankings, with 24 universities now ranked among the world’s top 1,000 institutions, up from 21 previously, adding that 17 of them are public universities.

Despite the progress, the minister expressed concern over a significant transition gap between primary and junior secondary education.

He cited the 2024–2025 Annual School Census, which showed about 25 million pupils in primary schools but only five million students in junior secondary schools, blaming the gap on inadequate JSS facilities and calling for an end to the disarticulation policy.

He also announced that teacher professional development has been moved online through the EduRev platform, while free digital lessons from Primary One to Senior Secondary School Three are now available nationwide.

According to him, the government is also working to amend the UBEC Act to increase education funding from 2 per cent to 5 per cent.

Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Sa’idu Ahmad, said improving teacher quality remains a key priority under the Renewed Hope Agenda, noting that ongoing curriculum reforms now incorporate artificial intelligence, digital literacy and entrepreneurship.

Earlier, ECAN Chairman, Chux Ugwuatu, said the summit was organised to review the Tinubu administration’s education reforms and encourage evidence-based discussions on strengthening the sector.

The event was attended by top education stakeholders, including JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, UBEC Executive Secretary, Aisha Garba, NUJ FCT Chairman, Grace Ike, and the Minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah.