Nigeria’s education sector is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed schools for most of 2020. The Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) nine-month strike also halted academic activities in public universities.

Universities resume with a backlog of admissions and rushed studies to accommodate new students. ASUU threatens to strike again, causing unease among students trying to catch up.

Despite calls for increased funding, the education sector receives only 5.6% of the 2021 budget, the lowest since 2011. This allocation falls short of UNESCO’s recommendations. Primary and secondary schools are making progress with government and private sector initiatives. However, insecurity in northern schools is limiting recovery, with many schools shut due to kidnappings.

Also, the lockdown and insecurity lead to an increase in out-of-school children, rising from 10.5 million to 13.2 million, according to UNICEF while bullying concerns grow.

President Muhammadu Buhari has announced a new salary scale for teachers and increases retirement age from 60 to 65. WAEC reports an 81.7% success rate in the 2021 Senior School Certificate Examination.

JAMB, ok the other hand, sees poorer performance in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination due to pandemic disruptions and insecurity. JAMB remits N3.51 billion to the national treasury. The board identifies 706,189 illegal admissions by tertiary institutions. The National Assembly abolishes the HND/BSc dichotomy.

The National Universities Commission ranks University of Ibadan top among 113 universities. Professor Anthony Kola-Olusanya notes the sector’s sluggish recovery while criticizing funding, citing a shortage of 280,000 teachers. He emphasizes the need for increased funding.

Agreeing on this, professor Isaac Olawale Albert states that 2021 is unfavourable for education due to prolonged school closures and challenges adapting to virtual learning.

ASUU strikes on the other side, highlight the sector’s low priority among the political elite. To address mass youth unemployment, Albert stresses the need for academic institutions to provide development-relevant knowledge, while experts call for increased investment and reform to overcome pandemic-related challenges and ensure quality education.

Reforming the Nigerian secondary education system is important and so the sector must prioritize development.