Nigeria Links Education Funds to Data

Why this is here: KwaraLEARN, a state-level education initiative, reduced foundational learning deficiencies by half in less than two years.

Tunji Alausa, Nigeria’s Minister of Education, announced a shift to data-driven resource allocation for education funding in London, United Kingdom. He revealed that roughly 80% of donor funding over the past ten years went to the North-West and North-East regions. Despite this investment, these areas continue to have the lowest literacy and numeracy rates nationally.

Alausa explained Nigeria is strengthening its Foundational Literacy and Numeracy framework. The government is expanding programs like Reading and Numeracy Activity and Teaching at the Right Level across fifteen states. These initiatives use structured lesson plans and regular assessments.

The National Education Data Initiative now tracks over 32 million students in more than 220,000 schools across twenty-one states. While NEDI aims to integrate data from all levels of education, challenges remain in fully harmonizing information from various examination boards and agencies. Alausa anticipates these reforms will reduce learning poverty and build a lasting educational foundation.