Across Nigeria, an estimated 50–67% of children and young people who deserve access to education live below the poverty line. Classrooms are overcrowded, teachers overstretched, and millions of children remain out of school.
Against this backdrop, digitising education has emerged as both a necessity and an opportunity. Done right, it can expand access, improve quality, and prepare young Nigerians for a digital economy. But without inclusiveness and accountability, it risks widening inequality.
Signs of Progress
The Ministry of Education, with agencies like TETFund and UBEC, has rolled out ambitious initiatives.
Higher education: The TETFund Blackboard Learning Management System now serves 267 tertiary institutions, giving more than 2.2 million students and staff access to digital academic resources—one of the largest such deployments in Africa.
Basic education: The KOICA-funded Smart Education Project has delivered 21 “Smart Schools” with interactive boards, content studios, and adaptive tools for children with special needs. UBEC has also trained over 300 teachers, created nearly 4,000 digital lessons, and distributed devices, lifting the digital literacy of many public-school teachers.
Innovation drive: The Ministry is piloting robotics curricula and AI-driven platforms such as Ignite for Teachers and Inspire for Students. At the state level, KwaraLEARN is digitizing lesson delivery, while Lagos continues to expand teacher development.
Private sector momentum: Companies like uLesson, Afrilearn, and AltSchool Africa are making learning available on phones and tablets. uLesson has even launched Miva Open University, Nigeria’s first fully online institution accredited by the NUC.
Taken together, these efforts show that digital education is no longer aspirational—it is reshaping classrooms and institutions.
Where the Gaps Remain
Progress, however, is uneven.
Infrastructure: Fewer than half of public schools have reliable electricity or internet. For rural communities, digital tools remain out of reach.
Skills deficit: UNICEF estimates 78% of Nigerian youths lack digital skills, while many teachers still struggle to integrate ICT tools into everyday teaching.
Regional disparities: In the North-East and North-West, millions of children—including nomadic populations—remain out of school, leaving both traditional and digital systems underdeveloped.
Compliance and motivation: Some teachers view digital training as a box to tick for promotions rather than a tool for better teaching. Even where tools like Blackboard LMS are deployed, usage is low due to institutional resistance.
Similarly, while some smart schools thrive, others are half-used due to staffing shortages and weak oversight.
Systemic barriers: Insecurity, poor connectivity, high device costs, and limited government funding continue to undermine adoption. Abuja cannot carry this burden alone; stronger partnerships with states, the private sector, and donors are essential.
What Must Change
For digital education to deliver on its promise, four priorities stand out:
Inclusive access – Develop offline and low-bandwidth solutions for rural and underserved communities.
Teacher empowerment – Link digital training to career progression and ensure classroom application through stronger monitoring.
Shared responsibility – Scale up public-private partnerships to co-finance infrastructure and develop affordable, homegrown innovations.
Accountability – Enforce policy compliance and measure outcomes, not just inputs, so that investments translate into real classroom use.
The Stakes
Digitisation is not a silver bullet. But with Nigeria’s population set to double by 2050, it remains the most practical way to expand education to millions of learners.
The gains are visible—smart schools, edtech platforms, and digital teacher training—but so are the risks. If inequality, underfunding, and weak compliance persist, digitisation could entrench privilege instead of broadening opportunity.
The choice before us is clear: act urgently and inclusively or leave millions behind. A child in Lagos and a child in Katsina should have equal access to technology-enabled learning. That future is possible—but only if Nigeria matches ambition with accountability.
Mudiaga-Erhueh E.H., Esq, a legal practitioner and public affairs commentator, writes from Abuja
