Nigeria’s promise of nine years of basic education is becoming difficult to defend when millions of children have nowhere to continue learning after Primary Six.
Development Diaries reports that the country’s Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, recently disclosed that the 2024–2025 Annual School Census recorded almost 25 million pupils in primary schools but only about five million students in junior secondary schools, exposing a gap of about 20 million children at the point where basic education is supposed to continue.
The figures expose a long-standing problem now confirmed by the federal government’s own data, showing that Nigeria has about 80,000 public primary schools but only around 15,000 junior secondary schools.
One junior secondary school serves roughly eight primary schools, making it impossible for millions of children to continue their education even when they complete Primary Six.
Alausa attributed the gap to inadequate junior secondary facilities and renewed his call for the end of the disarticulation policy that separates the administration of junior and senior secondary schools.
According to him, the arrangement created more administrative structures than educational progress and will be presented to the National Council on Education for formal discontinuation.
The minister also reported that more than one million children have enrolled in school over the past two years through initiatives such as the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), while amendments to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act are expected to increase funding for basic education.
Those gains will remain limited while states continue leaving federal education funds untouched. UBEC Executive Secretary Aisha Garba disclosed that more than N100 billion in intervention grants has remained unaccessed because many state governments failed to provide the counterpart funding required to unlock the money.
UBEC also reported constructing more than 4,600 classrooms, renovating over 6,100 classrooms, building 2,780 toilets and providing 678 boreholes nationwide. Those interventions remain far below what is required for a basic education system serving about 40 million pupils.
The infrastructure gap and the financing gap now reinforce each other, as Nigeria has not built enough junior secondary schools to receive children leaving primary school, while billions of naira meant to expand those schools remain unused because counterpart funding was never paid.
The consequence falls unevenly across the country. Girls are often the first to leave school when the nearest junior secondary school is farther away, sanitation facilities are inadequate and families cannot absorb additional transport or schooling costs.
Children with disabilities face even greater barriers because many junior secondary schools still lack accessible classrooms, toilets and trained support teachers, while rural communities across the northwest and northeast face the sharpest shortages because school construction has failed to match population growth.
Nigeria’s constitution directs government to provide free and universal education, while the Universal Basic Education Act extends that guarantee to nine years, including junior secondary school.
Therefore, the education system has failed a child who completed primary education but could not secure a place in junior secondary school.
Parents and civil society organisations should request their State Universal Basic Education Boards to publish counterpart funding records and the number of junior secondary school places available across local government areas.
State Houses of Assembly should also explain why education funds remained unaccessed in any year their states failed to meet the counterpart funding requirement.
For the National Council on Education, it should formally discontinue the disarticulation policy and publish a state-by-state plan for expanding junior secondary schools, while UBEC should publish a live dashboard showing unaccessed intervention funds by state.
As for the National Assembly, it should ensure amendments to the UBEC Act include consequences for states that repeatedly fail to access funds intended for children’s education.
