REVIEW: In 2025, Nigeria’s education sector experienced many reforms, challenges

In 2025, Nigeria’s education sector underwent numerous significant policy changes, primarily under the government’s National Education Sector Reform Initiative (NESRI).

The NESRI, launched by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, plan to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences (STEMM) education; enhance Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country, advance Girl-Child Education, Harness Data and Digitalisation and Strengthening Quality Assurance Mechanisms.

While there were many reforms announced this year – even outside NESRI –their implementation and outcomes remained largely unclear by year’s end. Meanwhile, some of the existing issues in the sector persisted, in some cases becoming more pronounced.

“Generally, the sector didn’t perform well because many areas remained unchanged, and no significant reforms occurred,” said an education expert, Yomi Fawehinmi.

Mr Fawehinmi noted that the education minister introduced many reforms, but noted the execution was poor.

“He (the minister) caused more confusion than necessary,” he said.

“From the perspective of regulators, the failures at the UTME and WAEC were unacceptable. NeRDC also failed in effectively managing the curriculum change. While the idea of curriculum change was noble, the execution was poor.”

Below are some of the significant developments that shaped Nigeria’s education sector in 2025 –many of which are likely to influence its future.

No more foreign scholarship

For Nigerian academics, the year began on a rocky note. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) halted funding for foreign scholarships under the TETFund Scholarship for Academic Staff (TSAS) scheme, citing ‘excessive cost’.

The Fund had traditionally sponsored Nigerian academics for Master’s and Doctoral programmes abroad to boost local expertise.

However, TETFund said apart from the high cost, many scholars who were sponsored to contribute to the knowledge base back home have continued to abscond.

Ahmad Galadima, a professor and former deputy vice chancellor at the Federal University Gusau, admitted that the cost of foreign scholarship has escalated significantly as a result of the poor exchange rate.

Mr Galadima said the funds saved could be used to develop Nigerian institutions.

Although Mr Galadima never benefited from the TETFund scholarship, his master’s and doctorate degrees were sponsored under the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Overseas Scholarship Scheme.

He, however, worried that the institutions in Nigeria lack both facilities and expertise in some of the areas the scholars usually seek training for abroad.

“Due to lack of facilities and expertise in specific fields of Science, Engineering, Health Sciences, etc, some postgraduate research cannot be conducted in Nigeria. Therefore, the suspension has negative impacts on the development of those areas,” Mr Galadima said.

TETFund almost lost funding

Meanwhile, TETFund itself almost lost its funding as part of the government’s reforms of the tax bills. The bills, which sought the recalibration of tax collection and spending, proposed that TETFund allocation be cut from the current three per cent of Companies Income Tax (CIT) to two per cent for the next five years, and by 2030, cease to receive any statutory funding.

The bill proposed that, after 2030, TETFund would receive allocations based on a budget approved by the National Assembly.

This was vehemently opposed by stakeholders in the education sector, particularly the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), whose agitation first led to the creation of the Education Tax in 1993, which later evolved into TETFund in 2011.

However, the part of the tax bill was suspended, and TETFund retained its statutory three per cent of CIT.

This year, TETFund asked institutions to use their allocations for physical infrastructure development for upgrading and the rehabilitation of existing structures, and not for new constructions. 

The Fund disbursed over N700 billion to public tertiary institutions, including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.

Ban on establishment of universities

Another major development in the sector this year was the suspension of the establishment of new government-owned tertiary institutions for the next seven years.

For private universities, the government suspended the granting of new licenses for a year.

The development was one ASUU has long clamoured for, arguing that the existing universities are underfunded and that establishing more without alternative funding sources is stretching the funding for all universities.

In the announcement, Mr Alausa stated that the decision was to halt the decay in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

He explained that the current challenge in Nigeria’s education sector is no longer about access to federal tertiary education, but about addressing the proliferation, which has strained resources and led to the deterioration of infrastructure.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the Nigerian government continued to establish new universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, despite the existing ones struggling to access funding from the federal government.

In less than two years in office, President Bola Tinubu – who initially postponed the take-off of some federal universities approved by his predecessor, the late Muhammadu Buhari, due to funding concerns – went ahead to establish more than 12 tertiary institutions, including eight universities, two polytechnics, and two colleges of education.

Stakeholders, including ASUU, commended the government for the move to halt the establishment of new universities.

ASUU, which has long advocated against the proliferation of universities, said the government’s decision is in the right direction.

The head of Public Affairs at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Sola Adeyanju, also described the moratorium as “a very good decision.”

Mr Adeyanju stressed that building new universities without adequate personnel and infrastructure would only spread limited resources thinner.

ASUU strike

After more than two years of restraint, Nigerian academics under ASUU briefly went on strike again this year. ASUU downed tools for a week after an ultimatum it gave the government to address its demands lapsed in October. 

The cause of the industrial action was the longstanding disagreement between the government and the union on the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.

The agreement, first signed in 2009, covers the conditions of service and salary structure of Nigerian academics, which ASUU had repeatedly complained about.

ASUU’s demands, which are yet to be met, include payment of three and a half months’ withheld salaries from 2022, payment of promotional arrears of lecturers and the release of the one-year arrears of the 25 and 35 per cent federal government wage-award to workers.

However, the 2009 agreement is the crux of ASUU’s dispute with the Nigerian government, which has lasted over a decade.

The agreement also includes a provision for renegotiation every four years. That renegotiation has not been successfully completed since the first agreement was signed.

This year, the government inaugurated a committee –the sixth since 2017– to renegotiate the 2009 agreement. Several previous committees have presented a draft agreement, which the government has failed to implement.

ASUU, FG sign renegotiated agreement

In a significant development at the end of the year, a 16-year impasse may have come to an end after the Nigerian government and ASUU reached and signed the renegotiated 2009 agreement on Tuesday, 23 December.

ASUU confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the agreement was reached, and the union expressed hope that the government would honour the newly signed agreement.

Directives to universities

One of the many reforms introduced by the education minister, Mr Alausa, is the directive that Nigerian tertiary institutions publish their key institutional data on their websites.

The minister mandated all the institutions to publish a full breakdown of their annual budgets and allocations, showing personnel costs, overhead costs and capital expenditures, as well as their research grant revenue, including from TETFund. 

The minister also asked the institutions to provide their current total student population, categorised into undergraduate and postgraduate students.

New curriculum

At the basic education level, the Nigerian government reshuffled the curriculum to reintroduce history and compulsory skill-based subjects for students.

In January, Mr Alausa disclosed the reintroduction of history into the education curriculum. The government explained that history is now integrated into civic education, and is now to be known as Civic and Heritage Studies.

Also, the new curriculum mandates Junior Secondary School (JSS 1) students to select at least one trade subject to study throughout their six years in secondary school.

According to the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), the six practical skills available are Solar Photovoltaic installation and maintenance, Fashion design and garment making, Livestock farming, Beauty and cosmetology, Computer hardware and GSM repairs, Horticulture and crop production.

As part of TVET, the government said it has enrolled over 100,000 students across 1,600 vocational colleges in the country.

CBT for SSCE

Meanwhile, the education ministry has directed the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) to adopt full Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for all their examinations by 2026.

The House of Representatives, however, called for an extension of the start date to 2030. Lawmakers raised concerns about uneven access to technology, persistent infrastructural deficits, and low levels of digital literacy among students in rural communities.

However, the Head of WAEC National Office, Amos Dangut, assured the lawmakers that the new computer-based examination would be accessible to students in every part of the country, regardless of location or access to technology.

He said the examination body is committed to equity, transparency and fairness.

Glitches in JAMB, WAEC

This year, the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), and the WAEC-administered West African Senior School Examination (WASSCE), suffered ‘glitches’ that affected the results of students.

In May, JAMB admitted a technical error that affected over 370,000 of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the 2025 UTME. The admission followed concerns raised by candidates who said their scores did not reflect their abilities, prompting JAMB to conduct a review of the results. It later conducted fresh examinations for the affected students.

Later in August, days after releasing the 2025 WASSCE results for school candidates, WAEC halted the results checker following the discovery of a technical issue that altered some results.

WAEC explained that the technical issues were discovered during an internal review of the results earlier released.

WAEC’s review of the WASSCE results and subsequent release of the corrected results pushed pass performance from 38 per cent to 62 per cent.

The Return of School Abductions

The year 2025, however, was not all about reforms. An old challenge reared its head. Twice, bandits stormed schools and abducted hundreds of students.

On 17 November, armed bandits stormed the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School (GGCSS) in Maga, Kebbi State, and abducted 25 students. In the process, the bandits killed the vice principal of the school.

Days later, on 21 November, another group of bandits attacked the Saint Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, in Agwara Local Government Area (LGA) of neighbouring Niger state. There, over 200 pupils were kidnapped. The government eventually secured the release of the students after weeks in captivity.