Before the Ladder: Fixing Nigeria’s Broken Education Floor
•February 20, 2026
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Why It Matters
A functional basic education floor is prerequisite for Nigeria’s productivity, industrial growth, and social mobility, making the current gaps a national development risk.
Key Takeaways
- •18 million children out of school nationwide
- •Most 10‑year‑olds cannot read simple texts
- •Schools lack classrooms, furniture, sanitation, and reliable electricity
- •Exams in English, but early instruction often in mother tongues
- •Student loan framework launched, yet budget share remains below 15%
Pulse Analysis
Nigeria’s education crisis is rooted in structural deficits that predate recent policy headlines. Over 18 million children remain out of school, and learning poverty is endemic—global assessments show most ten‑year‑olds cannot comprehend a simple passage. Inadequate classrooms, missing furniture, poor sanitation, and intermittent electricity turn basic schooling into an endurance test, especially in the North‑East and North‑West. Rural connectivity lags dramatically, limiting exposure to digital resources that could otherwise supplement scarce teaching materials.
The Tinubu administration has introduced reforms aimed at easing financial barriers and modernising tertiary governance. A national student loan framework promises to broaden university access, while digital portals seek greater transparency. Yet these measures address symptoms rather than the underlying floor. High administrative performance scores mask stagnant literacy outcomes, and education spending still falls well below the 15‑20 percent of GDP benchmark recommended for developing economies. Moreover, technology‑centric initiatives risk widening inequality when half the population lacks reliable internet and device ownership remains uneven across income and geography.
For Nigeria to transition from a fragile educational floor to a robust ladder of opportunity, policy must adopt an ecosystem approach. Early‑grade instruction should leverage mother‑tongue pedagogy, teacher recruitment must prioritize underserved states, and safe transport or boarding solutions are essential where distance deters attendance. Aligning curricula with local economic sectors—agriculture, renewable energy, digital services—will create a workforce capable of driving industrial diversification. Only by guaranteeing universal basic education can the nation unlock the productivity gains needed for sustainable growth and social equity.
Before the ladder: Fixing Nigeria’s broken education floor
Education in Nigeria: From Ladder to Floor
Nigeria comforts itself with a familiar story: education is the ladder out of poverty. Work hard, pass exams, earn a degree, and you will rise. It is a powerful narrative. It is also incomplete.
Education can be a ladder but only after it has become a floor. And in Nigeria today, that floor is uneven, fragile, and, in many places, missing entirely.
The country is home to one of the largest populations of out‑of‑school children in the world. Estimates in recent years have placed the figure above 18 million, with the highest concentrations in the North‑East and North‑West. Even among those enrolled, learning poverty remains severe; global assessments suggest that a majority of 10‑year‑olds cannot read and understand a simple text. These are not marginal gaps. They are structural fractures.
Consider the journey of a gifted child in rural Taraba or urban Ajegunle. Before talent can compete, it must survive. Many public primary schools still operate without adequate classrooms, furniture, or sanitation. In several rural communities, children walk long distances to school. Electricity is inconsistent. Internet access is rare; national broadband penetration remains uneven, and rural connectivity lags significantly behind urban centres. In such environments, studying is not merely an academic effort; it is endurance.
Language compounds inequality. National examinations are conducted in English, yet millions of children begin school with little exposure to it. Without strong early‑grade instruction in mother tongues, an approach supported by global literacy research, cognitive gaps widen quickly. By the time national exams arrive, the system has already sorted winners and losers.
The economic burden deepens the divide. For low‑income households, schooling carries opportunity costs. A child in class is a child not contributing to household income. Conditional cash transfers and school‑feeding programmes have demonstrated impact in improving retention, yet coverage remains limited relative to need. When survival competes with schooling, survival often wins.
This is not a failure of ambition. It is a failure of architecture.
Nigeria’s education debate is often distorted by meritocratic exceptionalism. We celebrate the rare outlier who rises from deprivation to distinction. But systems are not judged by exceptions; they are judged by averages. If mobility depends on extraordinary resilience rather than predictable support, the system is not equitable but selective.
Recent reforms under the administration of Bola Tinubu have introduced notable shifts. The operationalisation of a national student loan framework aims to reduce financial barriers to tertiary access. Efforts to stabilise university calendars have reduced the frequency of prolonged strikes that once disrupted academic continuity. Digital governance initiatives promise greater transparency in tertiary institutions. These are meaningful structural interventions.
Implementation metrics, including the widely cited 88 percent performance score, must be distinguished from outcome transformation. A high administrative completion rate does not automatically translate into improved literacy, reduced dropout rates, or equitable access. Education budgets, while rising nominally, still represent a modest share of overall federal expenditure relative to international benchmarks recommending a 15–20 percent allocation. Capital spending on basic education infrastructure remains insufficient to close nationwide deficits in classrooms, teacher recruitment, and learning materials.
Technology‑centred reforms illustrate the tension. Smart boards, digital portals, and internet‑enabled teaching tools are valuable innovations. But a digital policy that assumes uniform access risks reinforcing inequality. Roughly half of Nigeria’s population lacks reliable internet connectivity. Device ownership varies sharply by income and geography. Girls in certain regions face additional barriers shaped by cultural norms and security concerns. Without deliberate inclusion strategies, technology amplifies existing divides rather than narrowing them.
True educational justice requires more than infrastructure upgrades. It requires ecosystem design. Families must be supported so that children are not forced to choose between learning and livelihood. Early‑grade instruction must align with linguistic realities. Teacher recruitment and training must expand significantly, particularly in underserved states. Safe transportation and boarding options must be available where distance and insecurity deter attendance. The curriculum must connect to local economies, equipping students with skills relevant to agriculture, renewable energy, digital services, and manufacturing rather than abstract certification alone.
Education cannot be treated as a sectoral silo. It is a national development architecture. Countries that achieved sustained industrial growth did so by pairing universal basic education with targeted skills training aligned to economic strategy. A workforce capable of reading, calculating, coding, fabricating, and innovating becomes the engine of productivity. Without that base, economic sovereignty remains aspirational.
Nigeria’s broader ambition to diversify exports, strengthen manufacturing, and compete in digital markets depends on foundational learning. An engineer designing solar systems in Kano, a food scientist improving cassava processing in Benue, or a software developer exporting services from Lagos all emerged from an education system that first guaranteed literacy and numeracy. If the foundation is weak, advanced ambition collapses.
The question, therefore, is not whether education can lift individuals. It can. The question is whether Nigeria will build it as a universal floor before expecting it to function as a selective ladder.
A nation’s greatness is not measured by the prestige of its elite universities or the brilliance of its exceptional few. It is measured by the proportion of its poorest children who acquire the tools to thrive. When education becomes reliably accessible, equitable, and aligned with national strategy, it ceases to be a myth and becomes infrastructure.
Nigeria does not need to polish the ladder. It needs to reinforce the floor, deliberately, equitably, and at scale. Only then can mobility become the rule rather than the miracle.
Oluwafemi Mayowa Olusola – Opinion Page Editor, BusinessDay
He writes provocative essays on youth development, governance, and strategic partnerships in Nigeria, highlighting the intersections of education, economic policy, and national transformation through pragmatic and data‑driven analysis.
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