The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has enumerated programmes being put together to improve the quality of Nigeria’s educational institutions to be among the global best.
He said government has already set off programmes to improve quality of teaching, provide teaching aids and equipments, as well as embark on infrastructure rehabilitation and upgrade from primary to tertiary level.
Speaking during a roundtable in Abuja Tuesday, Dr. Alausa explained that the federal government was not only transforming the education systems, reviewing educational policies, but also implementing existing ones.
He reiterated government’s resolve to fully implement it’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences (STEMM) agenda, through which monotechnics, Polytechnics and universities are being programmed to align with national priorities.
In order to achieve these, the Minister said that had in 2024, approved the kick-starting of Vocational and Technical Education Reforms (TVET) for which he approved N120 billion through partnership with Bank of Industry (BOI) and Nigerian Education Loans Find (NELFUND), as well as approved N22,500 monthly stipend for students at federal and state technical colleges, designed to reduce financial barriers to vocational education.
He announced major infrastructure investment for Unity Schools, for which N80 billion had been approved, covering rehabilitation, security, fencing and solar installations.
He also said government has developed anti-bullying policy framework through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), which was adopted since February 2025 via the National Council on Education, and in the process of concluding the betting of statistics for conditional cash transfers to parents, especially mother’s, to encourage school enrollment.
He also said government has initiated the Nigerian Education Data Initiative (NEDI/NERDI) and Live Dashboard, a consolidate platform aggregating million-scale datasets (from JAMB, WAEC, INEC, NECO, NYSC) and providing real-time tracking of students progress via a live education dashboard, planned to go live by next month.
According to the minister, the dashboard would provide real-time assessment platform for teachers and lecturers aimed at ending laxity among lecturers and delays in processing student results or academic transcript at the tertiary institutions.
He announced that the federal government had launched an engagement programme with Loughborough University UK, establishing Transnational Education (TNE) Committees to develop partnership models between Nigerian and international universities.
He said his ministry has initiated a process which unlocked N263 billion in unaccessed Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) funds held back due to non-payment of counterpart funding by states since 2020-2024.
So far, he stated, 27 states and the Federal Capital Territory have accessed N78.6 billion in UBE matching grants by June 2025.
Alausa further said that with the new policy, all students in their 300-level and above in STEMM discipline are encouraged to lead projects for which “each student would receive start-up fund up to N50 million, along with access to mentorship, incubation services, and business development support”.
