Education Minister unveils reforms to tackle learning poverty, out-of-school crisis

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has outlined strategies and reforms to tackle Nigeria’s learning poverty and out-of-school crisis under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

At the 2025 Ministerial Briefing on Thursday in Abuja, Mr Alausa described Nigeria’s education crisis as a major obstacle to national development.

He said 45 million Nigerians are “learning poor,” unable to read age-appropriate texts and that the country has the second-highest number of out-of-school children worldwide.

“We need to know our problems so that we can solve them. To clearly and meticulously address this problem, 50 million people are out of school, and 50 per cent of them have never been enrolled. Five per cent of them are dropouts,” he said.

To tackle these challenges, he noted that the government is implementing a three-pillar approach: equitable access to basic education, improved learning outcomes, and stronger governance in the education sector.

Bridging the access gap

Mr Alausa emphasised that beyond enrollment, the focus is on equipping children with foundational literacy, numeracy, and life skills.

He noted that a key intervention is the expansion of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

He added that under the plans, young Nigerians will receive hands-on training in CNG conversion and maintenance, solar technology, electric vehicle assembly, mechanised farming, and livestock production.

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“We are not going to be training people arbitrarily. We have mapped industries to vocational education centres to ensure we are providing the right skills for the job market,” he said.

He added that the government will pay stipends and accommodation for students, fund training centres, and offer entrepreneurial grants to graduates in order to encourage participation.

“We want to create a new value chain in technical and vocational education. We are ensuring that these training schools have the resources to build workshops, hire teachers, and expand infrastructure,” he said.

Improving learning outcomes

Beyond expanding access, Mr Alausa said Nigeria must enhance the quality of education to prepare students for a knowledge-based economy.

He noted that one major reform is quadrupling admissions into medical schools by 2027, focusing on disciplines such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and dentistry.

“Today, we don’t have enough nurses in the country. Even if we train two million nurses, there are still job opportunities for them, both at home and abroad, he said.

He said in order to support this initiative, “funding will be directed to 18 selected schools across the six geopolitical zones, investments will go into upgrading classrooms, laboratories, and student accommodations to increase enrollment capacity.

“We are also building world-class simulation labs in six medical schools. This will help us expand training capacity without compromising quality,” he said.

Mr Alausa also announced the expansion of nursing and community health training programmes through new monotechnic nationwide.

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Data and digitalisation

The minister stressed that effective governance is critical to ensuring these reforms succeed.
He noted that the ministry is developing the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure, a digital platform that will house data from primary to tertiary education levels.

“We are working closely with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, as well as NITDA, to roll out a unified digital infrastructure. This will allow us to track educational progress in real-time and make data-driven decisions,” he said.

He also highlighted enhanced collaboration with state governments and private sector players to drive sustainable reforms.

Mr Alausa added that the ministry has engaged the Nigerian Governors Forum and revived the State Commissioners of Education Forum.

He said the goal is to align federal and state policies for a more cohesive education system.