Tunji Alausa: Reimagining Nigeria’s Education Sector

Under Dr. Tunji Alausa, Nigeria’s education sector is undergoing a quiet but far-reaching transformation, driven by data, technology, and targeted reforms, writes Oluchi Chibuzor

Nigeria’s education sector has for decades mirrored the country’s broader development paradox, which is usually seen as a nation that is rich in potential yet constrained by weak systems, inadequate funding, poor data, and uneven quality.

From overcrowded classrooms to millions of out-of-school children, from underpaid teachers to outdated curricula, the challenges have remained stubbornly persistent. Against this backdrop, the reform agenda of the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, is emerging as one of the most ambitious attempts in recent history to overhaul the system, reposition learning for relevance, and build a foundation for Nigeria’s human capital future.

Since he was appointed Minister of Education on October 23, 2024, by President Bola Tinubu, Alausa has been resolute in overhauling the nation’s educational infrastructure, addressing perennial challenges in the sector, and has shown transparency in driving the education policies of the federal government.

At the heart of Alausa’s approach is a conviction that education policy must be grounded in evidence, not intuition. For years, Nigeria has operated with fragmented and unreliable statistics on enrollment, dropout rates, teacher deployment, and school infrastructure. This lack of accurate data often led to poorly targeted interventions and wasted resources.

Determined to change this, the minister has launched what he describes as the first comprehensive annual school census in the country’s history.

“Today, for the first time in our country’s history, we are conducting our annual school census. By this March, the teacher or the principal who is responsible for any school in the country can go online and enter all the information required,” he said during a recent engagement.

“Beyond mere headcounts, the census is designed to digitise the education ecosystem. Every student will be assigned a Learner Identification Number, tied to their state, local government area, ward, and school. This digital identity will follow students as they move across states and institutions, providing a longitudinal record of their educational journey.

“If the student moves from Abia State today to Lagos State, we would know that he or she started in Abia State. This would help us monitor them,” Alausa explained. Such tracking, he believes, would enable early intervention for students at risk of dropping out.

“As students are dropping off, we now can know why they are dropping out and go and meet them in their location,” he added.

The data-driven architecture is also expected to strengthen the integrity of examinations and curb the longstanding scourge of malpractice.

“It will help us reduce, if not eradicate, exam malpractices. As you are aware, people are no longer transferring from Senior Secondary School 3, all those miracle centres have been shut down,” he noted. For the minister, the logic is simple: policy without data is guesswork. “If you don’t use data, you cannot plan, and if you are not planning, how do you intervene? And if you intervene without data, it is like you are shooting in the dark,” he said.

With nearly 24 million pupils in primary schools alone, Alausa argues that Nigeria cannot afford to operate blindly. Visual dashboards and geospatial mapping tools are being developed to give policymakers real-time insight into enrolment, infrastructure deficits, teacher distribution, and learning outcomes.

“There is a need to improve access to primary education in the country. Without data, there is no way you will know all that,” he stressed.

Central to the reform agenda is the teacher. Alausa believes that no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers, and he is pushing large-scale investments in teacher education, training, and incentives.

“We are investing so much on teachers’ education so as to improve education outcomes. We are doing it in such a way to incentivise them to improve their knowledge,” he said.

Importantly, the reforms extend beyond public schools to Nigeria’s rapidly growing private education sector. With private schools accounting for about 19 percent of all schools and rising annually, the minister insists they must be part of the national reform framework.

“If you don’t bring the private school teachers in, there will be a disaster for all of us. The number of private schools in Nigeria is rising every year,” he warned.

Nigeria’s crisis of out-of-school children has been one of the most troubling indicators of its development challenges. Reports indicate that the country has the highest out-of-children population in the world. This has remained a concern to governments and stakeholders.

While insecurity has often been blamed, Alausa points to poverty as the primary factor.

“Banditry and terrorism are not actually the reasons why they are out of school. Ninety percent of the reason is that there is no money to send them to school,” he said. To tackle this, the government is deploying a voucher-based partnership with private schools, paying them to enrol and educate children who would otherwise be excluded.

“We are going to use the private schools, and we are paying them through a voucher system. We have given them the model, and we have determined how much it will cost the government, and we will pay them per student. The payments will cover their tuition, feeding, and part of the educational materials,” he explained.

The programme is geo-tagged to ensure transparency and precise targeting. “We are geo-tagging them to know where these kids are. We have gone to seven states now, community by community,” he said. Beyond expanding access, the initiative will also strengthen regulation of private schools.

“If you are going to bring your school to be part of this, you have to meet certain conditions – the type of teachers that you have and you must have a certain number,” he added.

A major pillar of Alausa’s vision is the revitalisation of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), which he sees as essential for Nigeria’s economic transformation.

To combat youth unemployment and bolster Nigeria’s skilled workforce, the federal government had rolled out TVET, an ambitious, tuition-free initiative. The programme aims to train thousands of Nigerians across 30-plus trades—from auto mechanics and welding to digital media, agriculture, and cosmetology.  The initiative is fully funded by the federal government and promises not only hands-on training but also monthly stipends, startup grants, and access to business loans. Nigeria faces a critical shortage of skilled labor despite a booming youth population, which the TVET programme targets to close.

The TVET initiative is structured into three main tracks, including: Short-Term Certificate (STC) Programme – a six-month course ideal for school leavers and beginners. No prior education is required, only a National Identification Number (NIN) and a Bank Verification Number (BVN).

Fields of study range across: technical trades like welding, plumbing, carpentry, electrical installation; automotive like vehicle mechanics, vulcanising, auto-body repair; ICT & Digital, including network installation, hardware repair, digital media. Other sectors of focus include: creative & personal services, including fashion design, hospitality, cosmetology; agriculture, including poultry farming, beekeeping, livestock husbandry; as well as green economy, consisting, solar panel installation and maintenance.

Commenting on the initiative, Alausa said: “TVET is a core and essential of any society and for its future.”

He pointed to global examples where skilled trades command high incomes. “If you go to major countries in the world, a plumber earns more than a doctor, and an electrician earns more than a lawyer,” he noted.

Nigeria currently has about 160,000 students in technical training, but the government aims to scale this to one million.

To attract young people into skills training, the government is paying stipends. “We have paid almost N10 billion as stipends to these students. For every student, you will get N45,000,” he disclosed.

The programme is built on strict accountability measures, including biometric attendance. “We get their biometrics attendance every month. Every day they go to school. Any student that has less than 65 percent, we won’t pay,” he said.

Performance monitoring officers and quality assurance teams also inspect training centres to ensure standards are maintained.

To accelerate technical education reform, Nigeria has partnered with Singapore, widely regarded as a global leader in vocational training.

“We have even signed an MoU with the Singapore government. Singapore has one of the best technical education programme,” Alausa revealed.

The partnership will include training for Nigerian technical teachers and leadership training for polytechnic and technical school administrators. “They will train about 250 of our technical school teachers who would now cascade it down. We are also doing training in leadership in technical education, where several heads of our polytechnics and principals are going to be trained and they will come back and cascade that training,” he said.

Tertiary education is also set for massive investment. The government plans to deploy about N200 billion in TETFund resources to universities and polytechnics.

“This year we are hoping to invest about N200 billion of TETFund money in our universities and polytechnics,” Alausa said.

Selected universities of technology and faculties of engineering will be equipped with modern workshops, while new facilities will be built where they do not exist.

“We have allocated N4 billion for each of the universities. Our technical colleges and our polytechnics are also beneficiaries,” he noted. Simulation laboratories—first of their kind in Nigeria—are being built across the country to enhance experiential learning.

“We are building simulation labs, about eight of them across the country. Each of them would get simulation lab. That would be the first in the country,” he said. Curricula are being revised toward competency-based and outcome-driven frameworks.

The minister also addressed misinformation around the history curriculum, urging Nigerians to disregard claims that certain ethnic narratives were removed.

“History is back, and it contains the entire Nigerian history. I don’t know who in their imagination took history out of our curriculum about 15 years ago, but it is back,” he said.

Girl-child education is another major focus, backed by a $1.2 billion World Bank-supported programme targeting adolescent girls.

“Data shows that if you educate a girl-child through finishing secondary school, the fertility rate drops,” Alausa explained. He described the programme as a demographic and economic intervention as much as an educational one. “That’s why I am so bullish about this,” he said.

In response to rising insecurity in schools, the government is also developing technology-driven school safety systems. “Our alert system is poor. When they kidnap these children, they come with hundreds of bikes. Where is the response system? Where is the alert system?” Alausa asked.

Planned measures include surveillance systems and motion sensors that trigger alarms and rapid response. “For each school, by the time we deploy the technology, you have the surveillance where there will be motion sensors. If you cross a path, there will be an alarm and there will be response immediately,” he said. A dedicated department on school safety has been created to coordinate these initiatives.

Funding remains a critical challenge, and Alausa is advocating structural reforms to secure sustainable financing for education infrastructure. He praised TETFund for rescuing tertiary institutions but argued that education needs first-line charge funding.

“Everything depends on funding. But one thing everyone agrees with is that TETFund rescued our tertiary institutions, because of the dedicated funding. But we need first-line charge money,” he said.

Labour relations in the sector are also being addressed, with salary adjustments and negotiations with unions. “We have lifted the academic staff salary by 40 percent. There is an existing parity and we have to maintain that,” he said, adding that discussions with non-academic unions are ongoing.

“For the NASU, we are also working on that. We are doing some modelling. We have told them to be patient,” he said.

Alausa also signalled a policy shift in how TETFund resources will be used. “No more construction of Senate buildings, we would use these funds in core academics,” he declared, underscoring a move toward teaching, research, laboratories, and innovation.

Taken together, the reforms represent a sweeping attempt to modernise Nigeria’s education sector, from early childhood to tertiary education, from classrooms to digital dashboards, from skills training to school safety.

Whether these initiatives will achieve their full promise depends on implementation, funding discipline, and political continuity. But for the first time in years, Nigeria’s education sector appears to be moving from rhetoric to systems, from promises to platforms, and from intuition to data.

As Alausa put it, without data, policy is blind. With data, Nigeria’s education system may finally begin to see clearly and chart a path toward a more educated, skilled, and prosperous future.