Nigeria’s education progress is hampered by the high number of out-of-school children and chronic underfunding, preventing the nation from recording stronger human development outcomes.
Nigeria had 20 million out-of-school children as of 2024, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with Kebbi, Sokoto, and Yobe topping the list.
The number, which was 18.5 million just two years earlier, is projected to increase if certain challenges are not confronted.
Analysts say the growing number of out-of-school children is hampering education progress, especially in Nigeria’s North, as it reduces overall literacy and numeracy levels, workforce quality and global competitiveness of Nigeria’s workforce.
“You cannot have a high Human Development Index (HDI) if you have the highest number of out-of-school children globally. It makes it difficult for the nation to achieve one of its education targets, which is, workforce competitiveness,” said George Ihuoma, a Lagos-based educationist.
“When you have children roaming the streets, you will have low literacy and numeracy levels, which often lead to cycle of poverty, crimes, low global competitiveness, and makes it difficult to actualise the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) aiming to ensure quality primary and secondary education by 2030.”
Human Development Index
The HDI is often assessed using three metrics: income, education and health.
The education dimension is measured by literacy level and expected years of schooling for children of school age.
Nigeria ranks 157 out of 189 countries on the global HDI, reflecting poor level of learning, high inequality, and underinvestment in human capital, according to the latest 2023/2024 UNDP Human Development Report.
The report shows that while the global HDI rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, Nigeria’s progress remained sluggish.
Education is the cornerstone of human capital development and societal progress. Yet, in Nigeria’s 2025 federal budget, education received a paltry seven percent allocation, a glaring signal of misplaced priorities in a nation battling with deep-rooted educational deficiencies.
The 7 percent lags Kenya’s 20 percent and Ghana’s 13 percent.
Education experts say the crisis is most evident in Nigeria’s literacy rate and the average years of schooling, two of the key components of the HDI.
Stephen Sule of the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi, said chronic underfunding is at the root of the problem.
“Our budget allocation to education is still around seven percent. This is inadequate as it results in students graduating without strong skills; laboratories lacking basic equipment, and public schools having collapsed at primary and secondary levels,” he noted.
“Go to many schools. Students can’t do their practicals. They have to send their results to some imaginary laboratories and then start defending those results, which is really bad,” he said.
Sule applauded the government for teachers’ training but urged them to do more. “Of course, I must give kudos to the government for the teachers’ training. There’s a lot of test-fund initiatives,” he noted
According to him, the weakness of Nigeria’s education system has created a ripple effect across the labour market and economy.
“Employers spend heavily retraining graduates who leave school without adequate knowledge. Even artisans lack basic cognitive training from early schooling,” he added.
Read also: UBEC moves to get 10m out-of-school children back to class
Egypt success
Egypt, currently Africa’s high-ranked country on the HDI, has significantly expanded access to free public schooling, invested heavily in teacher training, and modernised infrastructure.
Sule argued that Nigeria must adopt similar measures, particularly in strengthening primary education, where learning foundations are often weak.
According to him, infrastructure remains another pressing challenge. Universities, secondary and primary schools face severe shortages of functional laboratories, classrooms, and teaching aids.
He warned that without an urgent intervention, Nigeria risks widening the gap between its growing youth population and the quality of skills needed for national development.
The UNDP report points to Nigeria’s 32.7 percent inequality-adjusted HDI loss and a multidimensional poverty rate of 33 percent, underlining the deep connections between education, poverty, and national productivity.
“We need a holistic reform from early childhood learning through tertiary education, anchored on higher funding, teacher training, and infrastructure renewal. Without this, Nigeria will continue to lag behind,” Sule said.
Aderinwale Samuel, director, Sam Citadel International School, Abuja, said the collapse is evident across all levels of learning.
“In many government schools, children sit on the floor or window sills to learn because classrooms are overcrowded and dilapidated. Teachers are poorly paid. Sometimes, they go unpaid for months, and morale is at rock bottom. Under these conditions, we cannot expect high literacy or meaningful learning,” he observed.
According to him, the average Nigerian spends only about 6.2 years in school, compared to the global average of 8.6 years and Egypt’s 10.2 years. Adult literacy is about 62 percent, with even lower rates among women and rural populations.
Samuel explained that Egypt has also implemented wide-ranging reforms under its Education 2.0 programme, introducing competency-based curricula, digital tablets for high school students, smart classrooms, and online learning platforms.
Schooling is compulsory until age 14, while adult literacy campaigns and vocational training programmes are supported by government and NGO partnerships.
“Egypt invests deliberately in teacher training, incentives, and modern digital tools. These policies have boosted youth literacy to over 90 percent, compared to Nigeria’s 62 percent.
“We must move beyond rhetoric and treat education as the foundation of national growth,” Samuel said.
