Southwest Education Sector on Brink as Majority of Senior Officers to Retire by 2026
Funmi Ogundare
The education sector in Nigeria’s Southwest is facing an imminent leadership and manpower crisis, with more than 70 per cent of Directors of Education and senior principals across the region projected to retire by December 2026, the Africa Brands Review Services Limited and the Association of Professional Consultants of Nigeria (APCI) have said.
The Executive Secretary of African Brands Review/ APCI, Joseph Ayodele, in a statement, raised concerns over classroom stability, policy execution and institutional continuity, saying that the looming development is a demographic cliff capable of triggering widespread disruption across public education systems in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states.
According to him, the impending mass exit will largely affect educators recruited during the 1991/92 employment wave, who are reaching the mandatory retirement threshold of 60 years of age or 35 years in service under civil service rules.
“Many of these officers currently occupy strategic administrative and leadership positions, having guided the region through major policy reforms, including the 6-3-3-4 system and the transition to digital administration,” he stated.
He warned that the situation is being compounded by inconsistent implementation of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act of 2022, which allows teachers to serve up to 65 years of age or 40 years in service.
Several Southwest states, Ayodele noted, are yet to fully domesticate the policy, citing fiscal pressures related to pensions and concerns about promotion stagnation for younger officers.
He also observed that current recruitment efforts in the region fall short of the scale required to replace the retiring workforce. While initiatives such as Ogun TEACh and Oyo TESCOM recruitment drives exist, they are largely intervention-based and insufficient to absorb the volume of expected exits.
Beyond numbers, the executive secretary identified a growing leadership and skills gap, stressing that professional development and succession planning have weakened significantly.
“The absence of structured mentoring and leadership transition frameworks, leaves deputy directors and mid-level officers unprepared for complex administrative roles, while gaps persist in STEM pedagogy and modern teaching competencies.
“If unaddressed, by early 2027, the region could experience severe administrative delays, rising teacher-to-pupil ratios,particularly in Mathematics and English, and a major pension shock as thousands of seni or officers exit state payrolls simultaneously.”
To avert what he termed an “educational winter,” Ayodele called on the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission to lead a coordinated regional response.
Key recommendations, he noted, include full and immediate implementation of the 65/40 retirement policy, emergency recruitment of at least 20,000 teachers across the six states, and the introduction of a mandatory knowledge-transfer programme for retiring directors to preserve institutional memory.
He said proactive planning and regional collaboration are critical to sustaining the Southwest’s long-standing reputation for educational excellence.
“The region’s biggest strength has always been its human capital,” Ayodele said. “Without urgent intervention, the system risks losing decades of experience overnight, with far-reaching consequences for learning outcomes and governance.”
He stressed that timely action in 2026 would determine whether the Southwest navigates the transition smoothly or enters a prolonged period of instability in its education sector.
