As changing socioeconomic conditions continue to plague developmental efforts, questions are emerging about the failure of nearly N12 trillion poured into the education sector over five years to, among other things, return 15 million children to classrooms and radically improve learning outcomes, OWEDE AGBAJILEKE reports.

Between 2021 and 2025, Nigeria spent about N9.29 trillion on education, with an additional N2.6 trillion ($1.7 trillion) received from international development partners within the same period to support the sector. 

Despite the huge investment, the country has continued to grapple with a deepening education crisis, especially with about 15 million children currently out of school.

Additionally, these figures highlight a widening gap between massive financial investments in the education sector and the persistently poor learning outcomes and access to schooling.

A breakdown of the spending showed that the government allocated about N1.09 trillion in 2021, N1.29 trillion in 2022 and N1.79 trillion in 2023 to the sector. The figure rose to N2.18 trillion in 2024 and moved further to about N2.94 trillion in 2025, bringing the five-year total to approximately N9.29 trillion.

The allocations covered key institutions, including the Federal Ministry of Education, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), alongside other intervention programmes aimed at improving infrastructure, teachers’ training and access to schooling.

Reports on the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) website showed that an estimated 15 million Nigerian children are out of school. 

According to the platform, the Federal Ministry of Education has introduced several initiatives under the current administration to boost enrolment, improve literacy and numeracy and develop a sustainable framework for integrating Almajiri education into the formal education system.

The ministry disclosed that approximately one million out-of-school children have been reintegrated into schools, while more than 120 learning centres have been constructed nationwide to improve access to education. It also revealed that 36 state offices have been established to coordinate interventions, with over 1,400 Tsangaya teachers trained to support the integration of formal education into traditional Islamic learning settings.

Among the key programmes highlighted by the ministry are the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education (NCAOOSCE), the Back2School drive and an interactive dashboard designed to monitor out-of-school children’s data and interventions.

It said the strategic objectives of the initiative were to reduce the number of children outside the school system, create sustainable pathways to keep children in school, integrate foundational literacy and numeracy into non-formal settings, as well as develop a comprehensive policy framework for Almajiri education.

The federal government in its 2026 budget sought to tackle the challenge by earmarking N35 billion for programmes that specifically target out-of-school children as part of broader measures to improve access to education and reduce the number of children excluded from formal learning.

But stakeholders in the sector have questioned the sufficiency of the allocation considering the scale of the crisis.
Analysts argued that beyond budgetary provisions, effective implementation, improved school security, poverty reduction measures and stronger collaboration between federal, state and local governments remained critical to boosting enrolment and retaining those already in school.

Practically, the N35 billion allocation translates to roughly N2,333 per child when spread across the estimated 15 million out-of-school children. The figure has further fuelled debate on whether the figure is adequate to address such pressing social challenges.

Further checks on the websites of key education agencies responsible for out-of-school children, including UBEC, NCAOOSCE and the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), showed that none of the agencies published data on the number of out-of-school children in the country.

The development, which underscores a lack of accessible local data from key government agencies responsible for basic, secondary and out-of-school education programmes in the country, raises concerns over continued reliance on statistics from international organisations on the issue.

While UBEC’s representative, David Apeh, failed to provide concrete reasons for the agency’s failure to provide data on the matter, the spokesperson for NSSEC, Fatima Bappare, said the commission “is still working on its data collection.”

Meanwhile, as at press time, Nura Muhammad of NCAOOSCE did not respond to enquiries sent to him by The Guardian.

Investigations, however, revealed that the sector received substantial backing from international development partners to the tune of about $1.7 billion towards improving access to education and learning outcomes within the period.

The World Bank emerged as the largest contributor, with $1 billion, through the $500 million Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme and an additional $500 million education financing package approved in 2025 to support education reforms and strengthen basic education delivery.

Other multilateral agencies that made significant contributions include the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) with the $125 million System Transformation Grant to improve foundational learning, strengthen education systems and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) with $98 million support for the development of Anglo-Arabic education.

In conflict-affected areas, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) invested more than $35 million, including a $20.1 million resilience programme and $15 million grant announced in 2024, targeting vulnerable children in the North-East through interventions implemented largely by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and partner organisations.

Bilateral donors and international non-governmental organisations equally played critical roles on the matter. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for instance,  invested over $200 million in literacy and basic education programmes.

Speaking to The Guardian, Prof. Edem Eniang of the University of Uyo said that the poor outcomes were driven by a combination of structural, economic and security-related challenges that have undermined several previous efforts.

According to him, one of the major factors is the chronic mismatch between funding and outcomes, noting that a substantial portion of education expenditure is devoted to recurrent costs, with insufficient investment in critical areas such as school infrastructure, teachers’ development, learning materials and effective monitoring mechanisms.

Eniang added that growing insecurity in several parts of the country has led to the closure of schools, displacement of families and increased reluctance among parents to enrol or retain their children in school. 

According to him, widespread poverty has equally forced many children into street hawking, farming, domestic work and other forms of child labour, thereby depriving them of educational opportunities.

The university don also identified cultural and religious reservations about Western education in some communities, particularly those affecting the education of girls, as well as poor remuneration for teachers as additional barriers hindering progress in the sector.

He said that weak governance structures, poor data management systems and inadequate coordination among federal, state and local authorities limit the impact of educational interventions.

“The result is that large public investments often fail to reach the children in need,” he said, stressing the need for greater accountability, targeted interventions and reforms that prioritise learning outcomes alongside increased funding.

“In my humble but very honest opinion, the persistence of more than 15 million out-of-school children despite the over N11.9 trillion expenditure in the last five years underscores a fundamental truth that education challenges are not merely about the amount of money spent but about how effectively resources are deployed and the broader social conditions within which learning takes place.

“Addressing this crisis requires a comprehensive and evidence-based approach. The government must prioritise accountability and ensure that education funds directly improve learning conditions. Investments should focus on teacher development, school infrastructure, digital learning opportunities and targeted support for vulnerable children.

“Security around schools must be strengthened, while social protection programmes should help poor families keep their children in school. Equally important is community engagement to address cultural and gender-related barriers to education.

“Ultimately, solving Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis demands more than increased spending. It requires strategic investment, transparent governance and a national commitment to ensuring that every child, regardless of location or circumstance, has access to quality and affordable education.

“The future competitiveness, stability and prosperity of Nigeria depend on it. Governments at all levels, corporate organisations, private school operators, alumni associations and charitable individuals must be very intentional about incentivising educational performance above social trends that reward celebrated frivolities that promote laziness and waywardness. Rather, scholarly competitions for schools, students and teachers should be promoted and highly rewarding.

In the view of public affairs analyst Patrick Nzeh, the out-of-school crisis is not only a fallout of poverty and insecurity, but also growing parental irresponsibility and weak accountability in education spending.

Nzeh argued that the country’s alarming number of out-of-school children cuts across both northern and southern regions, noting that some parents have continued to raise large families despite their inability to provide basic care and education for the children. 

He said that insecurity has further compounded the problem, giving already reluctant communities additional reasons to keep children permanently out of classrooms.

He also criticised the misuse of the free education policy, stressing that some parents view the system as an avenue for personal gain rather than investment in their children’s future. According to him, instances where parents demand incentives before enrolling their children in school point to a deeper societal challenge that cannot be solved by increased funding alone.

As part of the measures to tackle the crisis, Nzeh proposed the introduction of a mandatory education levy on parents for every school-age child. He said such a policy will not only generate additional funding for the sector but also reinforce parental responsibility by attaching financial obligations to childbearing.  

He stressed that improved accountability in the use of education funds remains critical, urging authorities to prioritise spending on teachers, learning materials and initiatives that deliver measurable improvements in school enrolment and completion rates.

In his intervention, the initiator of the Creative Change Centre, Omole Ibukun, warned that the proposed increase in the registration fees for WAEC and NECO examinations would worsen Nigeria’s already severe education crisis by pushing more children out of the school system and denying many others the opportunity to obtain certificates needed to advance academically or secure employment.

In an interview with The Guardian, he argued that, beyond making education significantly more expensive for struggling families, the sharp rise in examination fees would discourage thousands of eligible candidates from registering for the examinations despite completing their secondary education.

According to him, many students could end up leaving school without recognised certificates, further widening the country’s education gap and limiting their chances of gaining admission into tertiary institutions or competing in the labour market.

His words: “WAEC/NECO registration isn’t the last bus stop in a child’s education. It is, in fact, the bus stop that converts years of prior investment (fees, uniforms, books, transport, and feeding) into a certificate that actually has exchange value in the labour market or admissions market. If you raise the price to get to that bus stop by 82 per cent, from N27,000-N30,000 to N50,000, and you don’t just lose the child at the point of registration, you have retroactively devalued every naira a poor household already spent getting a child through JSS1 to SS3, because now there’s a real chance that investment will never cash out into a certificate.

“That’s why this is not just about more out-of-school children in the crude sense of kids never enrolling, even when Nigeria already has 10.5 to 15 million of those. It will add to that number because it will discourage more people from taking the first leap into education, because it’s expensive, but willit also create a second category. The second category is the category of children who complete secondary school but exit the system uncertified, effectively unsuitable to the labour market and locked out of tertiary admission, which itself only absorbs 500,000-700,000 of the two million-plus who seek it annually.” 

On his part, the immediate past Public Relations Officer of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Samson Adeyemi, described the proposed increase as ill-timed and insensitive, warning that it would place an additional financial burden on struggling families and further limit access to education for children from low-income households.

He urged the Federal Government to permanently shelve the proposal and instead strengthen funding for the examination bodies through budgetary allocations and targeted subsidies, arguing that no qualified Nigerian student should be denied the opportunity to sit for public examinations because of financial hardship.

On the impact of the hike on out-of-school children, Adeyemi said the proposed increase in examination registration fees would worsen Nigeria’s education crisis by forcing many students from poor and vulnerable households to abandon their academic pursuits at the final stage of secondary education.

He argued that while the country is already grappling with millions of out-of-school children, imposing higher costs on terminal examinations would create another layer of exclusion by preventing students who have completed their studies from obtaining the certificates required for employment and admission into tertiary institutions.

According to him, the long-term consequences would extend beyond the education sector, as more young people without recognised qualifications could swell the ranks of the unemployed, increase poverty and social inequality, and expose many youths to crime and other social vices.

He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to sustain the suspension of the proposed fee hike, increase budgetary support for WAEC and NECO, and introduce targeted subsidies for candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure that no child is denied the opportunity to complete basic education because of financial constraints.