!

We have updated our Privacy Policy and

Cookie Policy. By using this website, you
accept the new terms.

I Accept

Home > Education System Profiles > Education

in Nigeria

EDUCATION SYSTEM
PROFILES

Education in Nigeria
March 7, 2017
By WES Sta!

This education profile describes recent

trends in Nigerian education and
student mobility, and provides an
overview of the structure of the
education system of Nigeria. This
version is adapted from earlier
versions by Jennifer Onyukwu, Nick
Clark, and Caroline Ausukuya, and
has been updated to reflect the most
current available information

INTRODUCTION
Almost one in four Sub-Saharan
people reside in Nigeria, making it
Africa’s most populous country. It’s
also the seventh most populous
country in the world, one with
ongoing growth. From an estimated
42.5 million people at the time of
independence in 1960, Nigeria’s
population has more than
quadrupled to 186,988 million
people in 2016 (UN projection). The
United Nations anticipates that
Nigeria will become the third largest
country in the world by 2050 with 399
[1]
million people.

The country is of growing economic

importance as well. In mid-2016, it
overtook South Africa as the largest
economy on the African continent,
and was, until recently, viewed as
having the potential to emerge as a
major global economy. However, a
substantial dependency on oil
revenues has radically undercut this
potential. Frankie Edozien, director
of New York University’s Reporting
Africa program, recently noted in The
New York Times that crude oil “is
responsible for more than 90 percent
of [Nigeria’s] exports and 70 percent
of its government revenues.” A sharp
decline in crude oil prices from 2014
to early 2016 catapulted Nigeria into
a recession that added to the
country’s already long list of
problems: the violent Boko Haram
insurgency, endemic corruption, and
challenges common to many Sub-
Saharan countries: low life
expectancy, inadequacies in public
health systems, income inequalities,
and high illiteracy rates.

Severe cuts in public spending

following the recession have a!ected
government services nationwide. In
the education sector, the situation
has exacerbated existing problems.
Ongoing student protests and strikes
have rocked Nigerian universities for
years, and are a symptom of a
severely underfunded higher
education system. Austerity
measures adopted by the Nigerian
government in the wake of the
current crisis further slashed
education budgets. Students at many
public universities in 2016
experienced tuition increases and a
deterioration of basic infrastructure,
including shortages in electricity and
water supplies. The crisis also dried
up scholarship funds for foreign
study, placing constraints on
international student flows from
Nigeria.

Despite these constraints, the

country will likely remain a dynamic
growth market for international
students. This is largely because of
the overwhelming and unmet
demand among college-age
Nigerians. Nigeria’s higher education
sector has been overburdened by
strong population growth and a
significant ‘youth bulge.’ (More than
60 percent of the country’s
population is under the age of 24.)
And rapid expansion of the nation’s
higher education sector in recent
decades has failed to deliver the
resources or seats to accommodate
demand: A substantial number of
would-be college and university
students are turned away from the
system. About two thirds of
applicants who sat for the country’s
national entrance exam in 2015 could
not find a spot at a Nigerian
university.

INTERNATIONAL
MOBILITY TRENDS:
THE TOP AFRICAN
SENDER OF
STUDENTS
Nigeria is the number one country of
origin for international students from
Africa: It sends the most students
overseas of any country on the
African continent, and outbound
mobility numbers are growing at a
rapid pace. According to data from
the UNESCO Institute of
Statistics (UIS), the number of
Nigerian students abroad increased
by 164 percent in the decade
between 2005 and 2015 alone– from
[2]
26,997 to 71,351.

In the short term, Nigeria’s oil price-

induced fiscal crisis is likely to a!ect
outbound student mobility. As many
as 40 percent of Nigerian overseas
students are said to rely on
scholarships, many of which were
backed by oil and gas revenues. The
vast majority of these scholarships
have been scaled back or scrapped
altogether in the wake of the fiscal
crisis. Further exacerbating the
immediate prospects of Nigeria’s
overseas students was a 2016 crash
of the foreign exchange rate of
Nigeria’s currency, the naira. The
crash increased costs for
international students, and
reportedly le" large numbers of
Nigerian overseas students unable to
make tuition payments.

But for all the short term upheaval,

the push factors that underlie the
outflow of students in Nigeria are
fundamentally unchanged. These
include:

The failure of Nigeria’s

education system to meet
booming demand
The o"en poor quality of its
universities
Rapid growth in the number of
middle class families who can
a!ord to send their children
overseas

Given those drivers, it seems unlikely

that the crisis will lead to a sharp and
prolonged downturn of international
student numbers.

Destination Countries
Due to colonial ties and a shared
language, the United Kingdom has
long been the favorite destination for
Nigerian students overseas with
numbers booming in recent years.
Some 17,973 Nigerian students
studied in the UK in 2015 .

In line with a general shi" towards

regionalization in African student
mobility, Nigerian students in recent
years have been increasingly
studying in countries on the African
continent itself. Ghana has recently
overtaken the U.S. as the second-
most popular destination country,
attracting 13,919 Nigerian students in
2015, according to the data provided
by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics
(UIS).

Despite this repositioning, the U.S.

remains a highly popular study
destination. Nigerian enrollments in
U.S. institutions have been increasing
slowly but steadily over the past 15
years from 3,820 in 2000/01 to 10,674
in 2015/16, according to the Open
Doors data provided by the Institute
of International Education (IIE).
Nigerian students are currently the
14th largest group among foreign
students in the United States, and
contributed an estimated USD $324
million to the U.S. economy in
2015/16. Engineering, business,
physical sciences, and health-related
fields continually rank as the most
popular fields of study among
Nigerian students enrolled at U.S.
universities.

Another country that has more

recently emerged as a popular
destination for Nigerians, especially
among those from the Muslim north,
is Malaysia. Aside from the appeal of
Malaysia as a majority Islamic
country, low tuition and living costs
are attractive, as is the opportunity
to earn a prestigious Western degree
from one of the several foreign
branch campuses that operate in the
country. As per UIS, 4,943 Nigerians
were studying in Malaysia in 2015,
making the country the fourth most
popular destination country of
Nigerian students. Another Muslim
country that is increasingly attracting
Nigerian students is Saudi Arabia,
which in 2015 hosted 1,915 students
from Nigeria.

IN BRIEF:
THE EDUCATION
SYSTEM
Administration
Nigeria has a federal system of
government with 36 states and the
Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
Within the states, there are 744 local
governments in total.

Education is administered by the

federal, state and local governments.
The Federal Ministry of Education is
responsible for overall policy
formation and ensuring quality
control, but is primarily involved with
tertiary education. School education
is largely the responsibility of state
(secondary) and local (elementary)
governments.

The country is multilingual, and

home to more than 250 di!erent
ethnic groups. The languages of the
three largest groups, the Yoruba, the
Ibo, and the Hausa, are the language
of instruction in the earliest years of
basic instruction; they are replaced
by English in Grade 4.

Overall Structure
Nigeria’s education system
encompasses three di!erent sectors:
basic education (nine years), post-
basic/senior secondary education
(three years), and tertiary education
(four to six years, depending on the
program of study).

According to Nigeria’s latest National

Policy on Education (2004), basic
education covers nine years of formal
(compulsory) schooling consisting of
six years of elementary and three
years of junior secondary education.
Post-basic education includes three
years of senior secondary education.

At the tertiary level, the system

consists of a university sector and a
non-university sector. The latter is
composed of polytechnics,
monotechnics, and colleges of
education. The tertiary sector as a
whole o!ers opportunities for
undergraduate, graduate, and
vocational and technical education.

The academic year typically runs

from September to July. Most
universities use a semester system of
18 – 20 weeks. Others run from
January to December, divided into 3
terms of 10 -12 weeks.

Basic Education
Elementary education covers grades
one through six. As per the most
recent Universal Basic Education
guidelines implemented in 2014, the
curriculum includes: English,
Mathematics, Nigerian language,
basic science and technology,
religion and national values, and
cultural and creative arts, Arabic
language (optional). Pre-vocational
studies (home economics,
agriculture, and entrepreneurship)
and French language are introduced
in grade 4.

Nigeria’s national policy on

education stipulates that the
language of instruction for the first
three years should be the
“indigenous language of the child or
the language of his/her immediate
environment”, most commonly
Hausa, Ibo, or Yoruba. This policy
may, however, not always be
followed at schools throughout the
country, and instruction may instead
be delivered in English. English is
commonly the language of
instruction for the last three years of
elementary school. Students are
awarded the Primary School Leaving
Certificate on completion of Grade 6,
based on continuous assessment.

Progression to junior secondary

education is automatic and
compulsory. It lasts three years and
covers grades seven through nine,
completing the basic stage of
education. The curriculum includes
the same subjects as the elementary
stage, but adds the subject of
business studies.

At the end of grade 9, pupils are

awarded the Basic Education
Certificate (BEC), also known as
Junior School Certificate, based on
their performance in final
examinations administered by
Nigeria’s state governments. The
BEC examinations take place
nationwide in June each year and
usually last for a week. Students are
expected to take a minimum of ten
subjects and a maximum of thirteen.
Students must achieve passes in six
subjects, including English and
mathematics, to pass the Basic
Education Certificate Examination.

Crisis in Elementary
Schooling
Like the country’s education
system as a whole, Nigeria’s
basic education sector is
overburdened by strong
population growth. A full 44
percent of the country’s
population was below the age of
15 in 2015, and the system fails to
integrate large parts of this
burgeoning youth population.
According to the United Nations,
8.73 million elementary school-
aged children in 2010 did not
participate in education at all,
making Nigeria the country with
the highest number of out-of-
school children in the world.

The lack of adequate education

for its children weakens the
Nigerian system at its
foundation. To address the
problem, thousands of new
schools have been built in recent
years. The Nigerian government
has the o!icial goal to
universalize free basic education
for all children. Yet, despite
recent improvements in total
enrollment numbers in
elementary schools, the basic
education system remains
underfunded; facilities are o"en
poor, teachers inadequately
trained, and participation rates
are low by international
standards.

In 2010, the net enrollment rate

at the elementary level was 63.8
percent compared to a global
average of 88.8 percent.
According to recent statistics on
completion rates, approximately
one quarter of current pupils
drop out of elementary school.
These low participation rates
perpetuate illiteracy rates in
Nigeria, which, while relatively
high compared to other Sub-
Saharan countries, are well
below the global average. The
country in 2015 had a youth
literacy rate of 72.8 percent and
an adult literacy rate of 59.6
percent compared to global rates
of 90.6 percent (2010) and 85.3
percent (201o), respectively (data
reported by the World Bank).
Within Nigeria, there is a distinct
regional di!erence in
participation rates in education
between the oil-rich South and
the impoverished North of the
country, in some parts of which
elementary enrollment rates
were reportedly below 25 percent
[3]
in 2010.

Senior Secondary
Education
Senior Secondary Education lasts
three years and covers grades 10
through 12. In 2010, Nigeria
reportedly had a total 7,104
secondary schools with 4,448,981
pupils and a teacher to pupil ratio of
[4]
about 32:1.

Reforms implemented in 2014 have

led to a restructuring of the national
curriculum. Students are currently
required to study four compulsory
“cross-cutting” core subjects, and to
choose additional electives in four
available areas of concentration.
Compulsory subjects are: English
language, mathematics, civic
education, and one
trade/entrepreneurship subject. The
available concentration subjects are:
Humanities, science and
mathematics, technology, and
business studies. The new curriculum
has a stronger focus on vocational
training than previous curricula, and
is intended to increase employability
of high school graduates in light of
high youth unemployment in Nigeria.

In addition to public schools, there

are a large number of private
secondary schools, most of them
expensive and located in urban
centers. Many private schools include
U.S. K-12, International
Baccalaureate or Cambridge
International Examination curricula,
allowing students to take
international examinations like the
International General Certificate of
Secondary Education (IGSCE) during
their final year in high school.

Senior School Certificate

Examination
At the end of the 12th grade in
May/June, students sit for the Senior
School Certificate
Examination (SSCE). They are
examined in a minimum of seven and
a maximum of nine subjects,
including mathematics and English,
which are mandatory. Successful
candidates are awarded the Senior
Secondary Certificate (SSC), which
lists all subjects successfully taken.
Students can sit for a second SSC
annual exam if interested or if they
need to improve on poor results in
[5]
the May/June exams.

SSC examinations are o!ered by two

di!erent examination boards:
the West African Examination
Council and the National
Examination Council (NECO). The
examination is open to students
currently enrolled in the final year of
secondary school, as well external
private candidates (in the
November/December session only).
The SSCE grading scale is as follows
for both WAEC and NECO
administered examinations:

Admission to public universities in

Nigeria is competitive and based on
scores obtained in the Unified
Tertiary Matriculation
Examination as well as the SSC
results. (The Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination is
discussed in greater detail below.)
Most universities require passes in at
least five SSC subjects and take into
consideration the average score.
Students must score an average
grade of at least ‘credit’ level (C6) or
better to be considered for admission
to public universities; some
institutions may require higher
grades.

It is possible to access student results

through the West African
Examinations
Council (WAEC)/or National
Examination Council (NECO)
websites. The student must provide
the PIN number that they purchase
for the equivalent of approximately
USD $3 (available at banks, WAEC
regional o!ices and online). With the
PIN number it is possible to retrieve a
printable copy of the WAEC results.
This is the fastest and most reliable
way of verifying a student’s results
from Nigeria.

Vocational and
Technical Education
The Nigerian education system o!ers
a variety of options for vocational
and technical education at both the
secondary and post-secondary
levels. To combat chronic youth
unemployment, the Federal Ministry
of Education presently supports a
number of reform projects to
advance vocational training,
including the “vocationalization” of
secondary education and the
development of a National
Vocational Qualifications Framework
by the National Board for Technical
Education, similar to the
qualifications frameworks found in
other British Commonwealth
countries.

A two-tier system of nationally

certified programs is o!ered at
science technical schools, leading to
the award of National
Technical/Commercial Certificates
(NTC/NCC) and Advanced National
Technical/Business Certificates. The
lower-level program lasts three years
a"er Junior Secondary School and is
considered by the Joint Admission
and Matriculation Board as
equivalent to the SSC.

The advanced program requires two

years of pre-entry industrial work
experience and one year of full-time
study in addition to the NTT/NCC. All
certificates are awarded by
the National Business and Technical
Examinations Board (NABTEB).

Another type of – relatively new –

vocational training institution are the
so-called “Vocational Enterprise
Institutions” (VEIs) and “Innovation
Enterprise Institutions” (IEIs),
established to provide employment-
geared education in the private
sector. At the secondary level, VEIs
o!er programs for graduates of
junior secondary school leading to a
National Vocational Certificate (NVC).
Programs are between one and three
years in length and conclude with the
award of the NVC Part 1, Part 2 and
Final.

At the post-secondary level, IEIs o!er

diploma programs for holders of the
SSC. Programs are two years in
length (3-4 years part-time) and lead
to the so-called National Innovation
Diploma. As of 2017, there were 137
approved IIEs and 72 approved VEIs