Alausa Highlights Nigeria’s Education Reform Gains at Global Forum in London

FELICIA ONAH, Abuja

Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, on Monday showcased key reforms and achievements recorded in the country’s education sector under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying the ongoing transformation would have lasting impact on future generations.

Alausa spoke during a special roundtable session at the Education World Forum in London, where he engaged education ministers and global stakeholders on Nigeria’s foundational learning reforms and broader efforts to tackle learning poverty.

The minister said Nigeria had made significant progress in harmonising foundational literacy and numeracy programmes under a single national framework covering both formal and non-formal education systems.

According to him, the Federal Government is currently expanding the Reach All Nigerians through Education (RANA) initiative for pupils in Primary 1 to 3, alongside the Teaching at the Right Level programme for pupils in Primary 4 to 6 across 15 states through the Universal Basic Education Commission.

“We’re scaling RANA for Primary 1 to 3 and Teaching at the Right Level for Primary 4 to 6 across 15 states through UBEC. This uses structured lesson plans, weekly teacher coaching and regular assessments,” he said.

Alausa explained that the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP), developed by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, was designed to help out-of-school children and adolescents achieve foundational literacy and numeracy within three years.

He added that both formal and non-formal education programmes are now integrated into the National Education Data Initiative (NEDI), enabling government to track educational coverage and performance from a unified platform.

“Both tracks now report into NEDI, so for the first time we can monitor formal and non-formal education coverage from one dashboard,” the minister stated.

Highlighting ongoing state-level reforms, Alausa pointed to programmes such as EKOEXCEL, KwaraLEARN and BayelsaPRIME as examples of successful, technology-driven education models already delivering measurable outcomes.

“The impact is measurable. KwaraLEARN halved foundational learning deficiencies in less than two years, while BayelsaPRIME improved literacy by 20 percentage points in just 19 weeks. The model is working, and we are now scaling it nationally,” he said.

The minister noted that foundational literacy and numeracy had become central pillars of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Programme.

He disclosed that the Federal Government was finalising a National Policy on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy to establish a sustainable legal and institutional framework for education reforms across federal, state and non-formal systems.

According to him, Nigeria’s Partnership Compact with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) now ties 70 per cent of education funding to measurable outcomes in learning, teacher management and data utilisation.

“Through our Partnership Compact with GPE, 70 per cent of funding is tied to measurable outcomes in learning, teacher management and data utilisation,” he said.

Alausa also revealed plans to increase the Universal Basic Education Commission’s share of the Consolidated Revenue Fund from two per cent to four per cent in a bid to boost federal funding for basic education nationwide.

On the out-of-school children crisis, the minister said ABEP now provides a recognised pathway for children outside the formal system to transition into Junior Secondary School.

He added that both ABEP centres and conventional schools currently operate under the same supervision structure across participating states.

“ABEP centres and formal schools now use the same coaching tools and learning materials, with SUBEB officers supervising both systems across 15 states. There are no parallel systems, lower costs and consistent quality,” he explained.

Speaking on accountability and governance reforms, Alausa said the National Education Data Initiative had exposed critical gaps in donor funding effectiveness and improved government’s ability to allocate resources more efficiently.

The minister maintained that Nigeria had shifted from focusing largely on educational inputs to prioritising measurable learning outcomes, expressing confidence that the reforms would significantly reduce learning poverty nationwide.

“With the National Policy on FLN nearly finalised and one standard across formal and non-formal systems, we are building a foundation that will outlast any single programme cycle. That is how we will end learning poverty at scale,” he added.