2024: Education Sector Continues to Growl Amid Policy Shifts, Budget Plans 

With few days to the end of 2024, Uchechukwu Nnaike and Funmi Ogundare highlight major events that shaped the education sector in the outgoing year

When President Bola Tinubu assumed office last year, one of the bills he assented to was the Student Loan Act, which will provide financial assistance to poor Nigerian students in tertiary institutions. The legislation allows them to access interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund). The fund covers tuition, cost of living and other basic expenses associated with study in an approved public to tertiary academic institution or technical and vocational education centre in the country. It was met with mixed reactions when it eventually took off in May. While many welcomed it as a much-needed initiative, there were concerns about the bureaucracy in accessing loans and how the repayment system would work. Some critics raised concerns about the possibility of young Nigerians accumulating debts before they had a steady income to repay the loans. 

Some stakeholders made a case for students in private institutions. They argued that since the funds were obtained from the taxes remitted by mostly parents of these students, the loan scheme should be open to them, too.

The fund’s rollout was linked to the government’s broader vision of nurturing talent and building a workforce with the skills required to compete globally, including innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship critical to Nigeria’s economic diversification efforts. It was also aimed at boosting private and public sector collaboration and addressing the country’s brain drain, among others.

Towards the end of the year, the president presented the 2025 proposed budget of N47.90 trillion before the 10th National Assembly. Titled ‘Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity’, the budget increased from 2024, which was N27.5 trillion.

Tinubu explained that the theme reinforces his administration’s commitment to securing peace, prosperity, and hope for a better future for Nigeria. Aside from security, infrastructure development and health, N3.52 trillion was earmarked for the education sector. He commended the collaborative efforts of the National Assembly, saying that the 2025 budget proposal lays the foundation for peace, prosperity and much-needed hope. 

While experts lauded the budget’s focus on improving infrastructure, social investments and revenue generation, others worry that while the government aims to finance ambitious projects, Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio is already high, and continued borrowing could lead to unsustainable debt servicing.

In the outgoing year, the president dismissed some ministers and reassigned some to other ministries. One of those affected was Professor Tahir Mamman, a former Minister of Education. He was removed and replaced by Tunji Alausa. The Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, was also reassigned to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. Dr. Suwaiba Ahmad, a gender advocate, replaced Sununu.

The president also merged some ministries for optimal performance.

This year, the Tinubu administration decided to implement the recommendations of the Oronsaye panel aimed at reducing the cost of governance and improving efficiency in service delivery, especially among government agencies, parastatals, and commissions performing overlapping functions.

The implementation involves merging, subsuming and scrapping agencies with similar functions.

Experts worried about the implementation of the plan, as well as its potential job losses, lack of political will and resources, and inadequate legal and institutional frameworks.

The experts also cautioned that while reducing the size of the civil service might be necessary, it needs to be carefully managed to ensure that crucial services are not negatively impacted.

They advocated for a broader public sector reform agenda beyond the Oronsaye Report. They argue that while the report focuses on reducing the size of government, Nigeria’s public sector also needs reforms related to ensuring that public servants are motivated and well-trained, modernising government operations, and adopting technology to improve efficiency.

In the outgoing year, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) recorded a 7.69 per cent decrease in the performance of candidates who sat for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). A total of 1,805,216 candidates sat the examination. Compared to last year’s 79.81 per cent, the council said the percentage of candidates who obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics this year, was 72.12 per cent.

In a novel move, the council released the results of the first-ever Computer-Based West African Senior School Certificate Examination for private candidates, 2024–First Series. It commenced migration from traditional paper-based examinations to computer-based examinations for its private candidates’ examinations.

The CB-WASSCE used a hybrid method to project all questions on the computer.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) also released the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results. Over 1.94 million candidates registered and sat the examination in 118 towns and over 700 centres across the country. The Registrar of the board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who announced the release of the results in Abuja, explained that it chose to delay the release of the UTME results by some days because it needed some time to scrutinise the results to ensure credibility and integrity of the results, ensuring that there are no questions or any form of unclarity concerning the results particularly as regards the issue of impersonation, mixed biometrics, and other forms of malpractices.

The outgoing year witnessed a policy twist with the government’s decision to set the minimum age for university admissions at 18 years.

The former minister, who announced at the 2024 JAMB policy meeting on education in Abuja, said that the law requires children to be in school at 18 years, having spent six years in primary school, three years in junior secondary school, and three years in senior secondary school.

The minister later bowed to pressure from stakeholders and reverted to the 16-year minimum age for admission. The age-long faceoff between the Federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) continued in 2024. The union expressed dismay at the government’s neglect and apathy to its demands several times.

So, the outgoing year witnessed academic disruptions and strike notices by ASUU and other staff unions of tertiary institutions from time to time.

ASUU’s key demands include implementation of the 2021 agreement, release of withheld salaries, payment of outstanding deductions, allocation of funds for the revitalization of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances, implementation of reports from visitation panels, reversal of the illegal dissolution of governing councils, and adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

In his assessment of the sector in the outgoing year, Chairman of the Governing Council, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Prof. Siyan Oyeweso, emphasised the urgent need for increased funding in the Nigerian education sector, stressing that the challenges facing the nation’s public universities are too great for the government to handle.

He highlighted several critical issues plaguing Nigerian universities, particularly those funded by the government.

He stressed that the problems confronting these institutions are monumental due to a lack of adequate funding.

This situation, the chairman noted,  has led to poor infrastructure, outdated teaching equipment, and poorly remunerated staff, which severely hampers the ability of universities to meet their educational goals.

He stated that such challenges have made it difficult for Nigerian universities to compete globally. 

“It is increasingly hard for our institutions to rank among the top universities in the world due to these systemic issues,” he said.

Prof Oyeweso also spoke about the evolving role of higher education in an interconnected world, particularly in the face of rapid technological advancements. 

“To remain relevant, we must embrace internationalisation, leverage artificial intelligence, and update our curricula to foster entrepreneurship among students,” he said.