An education research group has called on state governors across Nigeria to pursue an immediate structural reform of the public school system, warning that the country is sleepwalking into a generational literacy crisis with no credible policy response in sight.

EduIntel, an Ibadan-based education data and policy organisation, made the call in a statement signed by its programme lead, Sodiq Alabi, who argued that the centralised management of public schools by state and local governments had demonstrably failed, and that incremental adjustments would no longer suffice.

“In Nigerian public schools today, whether or not a child learns to read, the system continues as before. Teachers are paid, officials are promoted, and tenures are almost for life. The child, left poorly educated, is the only party with nothing to fall back on and no voice in how the system is run,” Alabi said.

The statement cited data from the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and UNICEF, which indicate that approximately three in four Nigerian children between the ages of seven and fourteen are unable to read a simple sentence. Alabi noted that the distribution of this failure closely tracks the country’s poverty map, with the heaviest burden falling on states where parents cannot afford private education.

To address the crisis, EduIntel has put forward a proposal it calls the Public Accountability School System, or PASS. Published on its website, the PASS model proposes the transfer of day-to-day management of government schools from state bureaucracies to vetted non-profit trusts, including community associations, alumni associations, faith-based bodies with established educational records, and other nongovernmental groups.

Schools under the framework would remain free and open to all pupils, with the trusts operating under binding performance contracts reviewed by an independent education inspectorate.

“This is not a privatisation proposal,” Alabi said. “The trusts would be legally barred from charging school fees or turning away any child. What we are changing is accountability. Today, a government school can fail for years or decades, and no one loses their position. Under PASS, a trust that fails to improve learning outcomes loses its contract to manage. Governments should not be directly running schools but should instead focus on regulating and funding the education of every child.”

The group pointed to Nigeria’s own educational history as a precedent. Before the federal and state takeovers of the 1970s, many of the country’s schools were managed by Christian and Muslim groups and community bodies under government subvention, a model EduIntel argues produced better academic outcomes than what’s obtainable in public schools today.

“State governments ought to recognise the futility of a system that either condemns children to a life of illiteracy or forces parents to spend money they do not have on private provision,” Alabi said. “The Nigerian state took control of independent schools five decades ago and promised quality and inclusion in exchange. That promise has not been kept.”

“The children who paid the price are now adults raising children of their own inside the same broken system. It is time for a reckoning, and we are inviting anyone who agrees to join us in demanding it,” he added.