Despite the fact that the North-West and North-East continue to have the lowest literacy and numeracy rates in the nation, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has stated that around 80% of donor financing for education over the past ten years has gone to these regions.
During a special roundtable discussion with international education stakeholders and ministers on Monday at the Education World Forum in London, UK, he revealed Nigeria’s fundamental learning reforms.
The minister stated that the Federal Government now uses better data systems to better direct resource allocation and education planning nationwide, pointing out that prior funding patterns had not yielded the intended learning outcomes, in a statement signed by his media assistant, Ikharo Attah.
The North-West and North-East continue to have the lowest rates of literacy and numeracy, despite receiving 80% of donor contributions over the past ten years, according to NEDI data.
Alausa stated, “We now have the data to reroute resources where they yield results.”
The minister clarified that by standardizing delivery standards for both formal and informal education systems, Nigeria has reinforced its Foundational Literacy and Numeracy framework.
He stated that through the Universal Basic Education Commission, the government is expanding programs like Teaching at the Right Level and Reading and Numeracy Activity throughout several states.
Through UBEC, we are expanding RANA for Primary 1–3 and Teaching at the Right Level for Primary 4–6 in 15 states.
“This makes use of regular assessments, weekly teacher coaching, and structured lesson plans,” he stated.
Alausa added that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council’s Accelerated Basic Education Program is assisting out-of-school children and teenagers in achieving comparable foundational learning outcomes in three years.
“For the first time, we can monitor formal and non-formal education coverage from a single dashboard because both tracks now report into NEDI,” he continued.
He cited state-level programs like BayelsaPRIME, KwaraLEARN, and EKOEXCEL as proof that technology-enabled and data-driven changes are enhancing learning results.
“The effect is quantifiable.” While BayelsaPRIME increased literacy by 20 percentage points in just 19 weeks, KwaraLEARN reduced foundational learning gaps by half in less than two years.
“We are now scaling it nationally because the model is working,” he stated.
He claims that the National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Program and President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda now place a strong emphasis on foundational literacy and numeracy improvements.
According to Alausa, a National Policy on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy is being finalized by the government to offer a long-term institutional and legal foundation for implementation at all educational levels.
“Seventy percent of funding is tied to measurable outcomes in learning, teacher management, and data utilization through our Partnership Compact with GPE,” he stated.
Alausa also revealed intentions to double federal government funding for basic education by raising the Universal Basic Education Commission’s share of the Consolidated Revenue Fund from two percent to four percent.
He stated that the Accelerated Basic Education Programme provides a systematic route for junior secondary reintegration into the official school system in order to address the issue of out-of-school children.
SubEB officials oversee both systems in 15 states, and ABEP centers and formal schools now use the same coaching resources and educational materials.
He clarified, “There are no parallel systems, lower costs, and consistent quality.”
Additionally, he claimed that the recently implemented National Education Data Initiative had improved sector accountability and revealed gaps in the efficacy of donor-supported activities.
Alausa noted that Nigeria is changing its emphasis from inputs to quantifiable learning outcomes and expressed optimism that continued changes would greatly reduce learning poverty.
“We are creating a foundation that will endure beyond any one program cycle with the National Policy on FLN almost complete and a single standard across formal and informal institutions. We will learn poverty at scale in this way, the minister continued.
NEDI, a centralized platform intended to revolutionize data administration throughout the nation’s educational system, has so far registered no fewer than 32 million students.
Over 220,000 schools in 21 states are currently covered by the data.
In order to facilitate the gathering, storing, and retrieval of data from basic to tertiary levels, the NEDI platform is being built as a comprehensive repository.
The platform incorporates data from important education organizations and organizations as part of its framework, such as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the National Education Management Information System Annual School Census, and the Universal Basic Education Commission.
It is also anticipated that examination organizations like the National Examinations Council, the West African Examinations Council, and the National Business and Technical Examinations Board will support the system.
A key component of the program is the implementation of a National Learner Identity Number, which will provide each student a distinct identity for the duration of their academic career, guaranteeing consistency and precision in record-keeping.
This development came after the Federal Government established a 25-person committee on January 27, 2025, to supervise the creation of NEDI and create a centralized, harmonized databank.
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