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$751 million for all federal universities.”
It seems the situation has worsened.
2016 also saw the licensing of some
new universities. Then some university
administrators were accused of, and had
court cases related to corruption
There were a lot of policy changes by
the several MDAs in education. The most
notable was from JAMB about admissions
into universities. The saddest happening in
education in Nigeria in 2016 was the lowering
of the cut-off marks for admission below 180
marks, out of 400. This is perhaps the worst
we have had.
Primary education remained backwards in
Nigeria, we still have the worst performances
in the world in having out of school children.
In 2016, our primary education system was
ranked the worst in the world, for the second
year running!
encouragement. Oyo State for example
developed a new education Policy. Lagos
started massive reforms in libraries, and has
started coding camps for children. Kaduna
passed a law to made education compulsory
while some states are working with UNICEF
on the Female Teachers Scholarship Scheme.
Sokoto declared a state of emergency in
education, and for the first time in Nigeria,
passed the Right to Education as a law.
However the Local Government system,
the owners of the public primary education
system have chosen generally, to remain
backwards.
It is noteworthy that the Nigerian education
policy was released in 2004. Till date, we
have neither built on it, nor made an attempt
to develop one. How do we develop with an
outdated education policy?
Globally, there are 61 million children
(typically aged 6-11 years) who are not
enrolled in school. Six countries are home
to more than one-third of all out-of-school
children: Nigeria has 8.7 million out-of-school
children of primary age, followed by Pakistan
(5.6 million), India (2.9 million), Sudan (2.7
million), Ethiopia (2.1 million) and Indonesia
(2.0 million).
There are a few silver linings. Some
state governments have seen flashes of
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