Only 6m Out Of 30m Primary Pupils Advance To Secondary School — Alausa

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has raised fresh concerns about the country’s education pipeline, stating that out of about 30 million pupils who enrol in primary school, only 6 million progress to senior secondary school.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Nigeria Education Forum (NEF), which the Nigeria Governors Forum organized, Alausa, who was represented by the minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Sa’idu Ahmad, describing the dropout trend as alarming.

She said according to data presented at the NGF, 30 million children enter primary school, only 10 million transition to JSS1 and approximately six million reach senior secondary school.

The minister said this “frightening pattern” is driven by severe shortages of junior and senior secondary schools, long walking distances for rural learners, cost barriers, and safety concerns.

Alausa said the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI)—a federal-state compact co-created with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum—was designed to tackle such systemic gaps.

He said NESRI is already driving reforms across TVET, STEMM, teacher training, quality assurance, data and digitisation, out-of-school children, and girl-child education.

He listed some of the achievements recorded through federal-state collaboration: 202,000 schools digitised across the country through the Nigeria Education Data Initiative (NEDI); 35,000 out-of-school children reintegrated. A total of 76,350 teachers registered nationwide to strengthen standards.

Others include: 5,600 TVET teachers trained, with over 250,000 students enrolled in certified institutions. 95,341 girls were trained in life skills, and 577,863 were supported through conditional cash transfers under AGILE—482,342 students benefited from federal scholarship programmes.

Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for a new national compact on education financing, insisting that the private sector, alumni networks, philanthropists and communities must share the responsibility for building and maintaining school infrastructure nationwide.

Shettima spoke in Abuja yesterday at the opening of the 2025 Nigeria Education Forum (NEF), which the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) organised.

Represented by his special adviser on General Duties, Aliyu Modibbo Umar, the VP stated that no country can rely solely on government funding for a modern and competitive education system.

He said Nigeria must transition to a collaborative model that mobilises industry, alumni, traditional institutions, and local governments to co-invest in laboratories, research centres, vocational hubs, innovation clusters, and endowment funds.

“The burden cannot rest on government alone,” Shettima stated. “Since education begins in the community, local governments and traditional institutions must take responsibility for infrastructure development, school maintenance, security, and teacher welfare.

Industry must work closely with tertiary and vocational institutions to shape curricula that reflect real labour-market needs.”

The Vice President said the foundational strength of any nation lies in the enlightenment of its people, warning that “nothing threatens a civilisation more than an uneducated generation.”

He highlighted the administration’s increased investment in education, noting that federal allocations rose from N1.54 trillion in 2023 to N2.18 trillion in 2024 and now N3.52 trillion in 2025 under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He also cited major expansions in funding through key agencies: TETFund’s funding grew from ₦320.3 billion in 2023 to ₦683.4 billion in 2024 and to ₦1.6 trillion in 2025. UBEC matching grants enabled 25 states and the FCT to access ₦92.4 billion, and an additional ₦19 billion supported teacher development in 32 states and the FCT. UBE grants increased from approximately ₦1.3 billion to over ₦3.3 billion per state, providing access to more than ₦6.6 billion in counterpart funding. NELFUND, created under the 2024 Students Loans Act, has disbursed ₦86.3bn to over 450,000 students in 218 tertiary institutions.

Shettima said these interventions signal “a new era where no Nigerian is denied tertiary education for lack of money.”