Alausa Outlines FG’s Reforms to Enhance Education Quality Nationwide

•NLC extends deadline to resolve dispute with unions by one month

Emmanuel Addeh and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has listed  a raft of reforms  to overhaul the country’s education system, expand access, and raise standards across all levels of learning.

In a note on the ministry’s recent achievements, Alausa said the changes are part of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which aims to align Nigeria’s education sector with global benchmarks and prepare young citizens for a technology-driven economy.

In the note, he described the new student loan scheme as one of the government’s most significant achievements. The initiative, managed by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), offers interest-free loans to students in public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. It was established under the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act of 2023, later amended in 2024 to make the system more inclusive and flexible.

According to the minister, the policy ensures that no qualified Nigerian student is denied higher education due to financial constraints. The loans cover tuition and other academic expenses.

Alausa also noted that History has been restored as a compulsory subject in the basic education curriculum, saying the decision was taken to promote national identity, unity, and civic responsibility. “As of today, History is fully back as a core subject in schools,” he said.

On infrastructure, the minister explained that the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) is rehabilitating schools nationwide through the School-Based Management Committee Improvement Programme. The projects include building classrooms, drilling boreholes, providing toilets and desks, and fencing schools, particularly in rural areas.

He added that the government has raised annual admission capacity in tertiary institutions from 750,000 to one million students and is harmonising tuition policies through NELFUND to ensure fair access.

Alausa pointed to the launch of the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) Roadmap as a key step in transforming the sector. The six-pillar plan focuses on technical and vocational training, school infrastructure, girls’ education, reintegration of out-of-school children, curriculum reform, and digital learning.

He said ongoing initiatives include a nationwide teacher development plan, a curriculum review that reduces subject overload and prioritises entrepreneurship and digital literacy, and a digital data system to track schools, teachers, and students.

The minister also mentioned the expansion of the World Bank-supported Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, which provides conditional cash transfers, upgrades school facilities, and equips girls with life and digital skills to overcome social and financial barriers.

Other policies, he said, include a proposed 12-year uninterrupted basic education structure, plans to phase out the Junior WAEC examination to curb dropout rates, and the upgrade of technical colleges nationwide. Under the new model, students will receive free tuition and stipends, with training weighted 80 per cent towards practicals and 20 per cent theory.

Alausa added that the government has launched the National Education Data System, introduced a new basic education curriculum, intensified teacher training and sensitisation, and expanded the national school feeding programme.

According to him, the scheme now uses digital registries linked to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure transparency and accountability.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has extended its deadline by four weeks for the resolution of issues between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government as the warning strike embarked upon by the union enters its second week.

Going forward, it said trade unions under its umbrella would no longer go into any form of negotiation with representatives of the government that have no official mandate.

The apex labour centre had a week ago threatened to call all its affiliate unions to join the strike in solidarity with the university teachers if the federal government failed to address their demands within two weeks.

However, after a meeting with ASUU and other university-based unions, NLC said it was extending the deadline to the federal government by four weeks.

Addressing journalists after a two-hour meeting with the unions at the Labour House in Abuja, yesterday, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said that they have developed a framework for negotiating the implementation of outstanding agreements towards sustainable funding of education.

“The NLC after extensive deliberation  with the unions in the tertiary institutions on finding solutions to the perennial problem in that sector have resolved to work with the unions to make sure that we find a lasting solution to the problem that we have been facing all these years.

“We decided to establish a framework for engagement towards implementation of outstanding agreements and towards sustainable funding of education in line with UNESCO principles and recommendations – that is 26 per cent funding of education and the review of wage structures and allowances in tertiary institutions as well as respect of trade union rights on collective bargaining,” he said.

Ajaero also said the meeting addressed issues relating to the government’s neglect of agreements reached through collective bargaining.

“In this regard, we discovered that those that the government sent to meetings go there without mandates. Henceforth, the trade unions either in the tertiary institutions or other places will not go into any meeting with government representatives who don’t have mandates.

“But to conclude it, we have decided to give the federal government four weeks to conclude all negotiations in this sector. They have started talks with us, but the problem in this sector goes beyond us or one union. All other sectors, all other unions are equally involved.

“That is why we are extending this to four weeks. If after four weeks this negotiation is not concluded, the organs of the NLC will meet and take a nationwide action that all workers in the country, all unions in the country will be involved so that we get to the root of all this. The era of signing agreements and threatening the unions involved, that era has come to an end,” he said.

While echoing the position read out by Ajaero, the leadership of all the university based unions including, ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) Non Academic Staff Union of Universities, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP)  said they were ready to stand in solidarity with other affiliate unions to ensure the federal government does not take issues of welfare of the workers and funding of the universities for granted.