By Femi Aderibigbe
The federal government’s proposal seeking to ‘migrate’ to 12 years of compulsory education in Nigeria while maintaining the current 6-3-3 structure is a welcome move to reform the sector.
This reform objective aligns with the long-standing advocacy efforts of civil society groups, including the over 100 CSOs in the National Working Group on Basic Education, who have worked tirelessly for an amendment to the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act (2004).
As someone who has spent over six years leading national advocacy on basic education, including pushing for gender-responsiveness in Education Sector Planning and the amendment of the UBE Act (2004) to guarantee free and compulsory 12-year education, I celebrate this move as a step forward. However, to make this reform meaningful, we must address the legal, financial, and operational bottlenecks that have historically hindered basic education in Nigeria.
12 years of compulsory basic education in Nigeria means that every child in the country would have the right to complete secondary education as part of the government’s free and compulsory basic education mandate. This is a significant win for education advocates who have argued that extending basic education reduces dropout rates, child labour prevalence, and gender disparities in schooling.
Research has consistently shown that countries implementing a 12-year free education system, such as Kenya and Ghana, achieve better enrolment, retention, and learning outcomes than Nigeria. Beyond education, increased access to schooling for girls, in particular, has been linked to economic growth, social stability, and higher GDP contributions.
However, history teaches us that policy reforms without structural and operational alignment often fail to deliver results. The UBE Act of 2004 sought to guarantee free education up to Junior Secondary School (JSS), yet Nigeria still has over 13.2 million out-of-school children, the highest in the world.
To make this reform work, the first urgent step is a legal and constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee the right to free and compulsory 12-year education. The current UBE Act only mandates nine years of schooling, and its enforcement mechanisms remain weak. The National Assembly must pass a revised UBE Act that extends compulsory education to 12 years and enforces penalties for states that fail to meet their funding obligations. Without a legal framework backing this policy, implementation will likely be inconsistent across states, leaving millions of children behind.
The second pressing issue is funding. The biggest challenge facing UBE implementation today is inadequate financing and inefficiencies at the state level. More than ₦135 billion in UBE funds remain unaccessed due to the stringent counterpart funding requirement, which mandates states to provide 50 percent of funds before they can access federal support. This requirement has left many states unable to fully benefit from federal education grants, exacerbating disparities in education quality.
To address this, the government should reduce the counterpart funding requirement from 50 percent to 30 percent and diversify education financing by integrating contributions from the Education Trust Fund, Petroleum Trust Fund, and private sector partnerships. Additionally, direct grants should be introduced to support education innovation projects, particularly technology-driven learning solutions that bridge rural-urban education gaps.
Beyond funding, Nigeria’s education system suffers from a lack of transparency and accountability, particularly within the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs). Many states have failed to manage resources effectively, leading to corruption and inefficiencies that undermine basic education delivery. One way to address this is by mandating every state to establish functional School Management Committees (SMCs) comprising civil society, community members, and teacher representatives. Furthermore, annual performance audits should be conducted to track state-level education progress, and technology should be leveraged to enable real-time monitoring of school performance, ensuring citizen engagement in the oversight process.
This policy move is a testament to the power of sustained advocacy. I commend the over 100 CSOs in the National Working Group on Basic and Secondary Education, development partners, and media allies who have worked towards this advocacy.
However, this is only the beginning. As education advocates, we must continue to push for legislative action to enshrine 12-year free and compulsory education into law, hold federal and state governments accountable for timely and sufficient funding, and ensure implementation structures are transparent and citizen-led.
If this reform is to truly benefit Nigerian children, it must go beyond policy statements. It must be backed by laws, resources, and robust oversight mechanisms that ensure every child, regardless of background or location, has access to quality education. The groundwork has been laid, but the real work of turning this vision into reality has only just begun.
Femi Aderibigbe is a former Advocacy Manager for Nigeria at Malala Fund and Board Chair, ImpactHouse Centre for Development Communication
