At the 2026 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) policy meeting, it was agreed that the minimum cut-off mark for the 2026/2027 admission into tertiary institutions would be 150 (37.5%). This mark was lowered to 100 (25%) where it concerned polytechnics and monotechnics, and the requirement was completely scrapped for agriculture majors. According to the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, the policy was directed at broadening access to education and encouraging local participation. This sparked discourse about the fate of the Nigerian educational system, given the decline in the critical standard that determines entry into higher institutions.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Education however, rejected this standard and declared that the state will abide by a cut-off mark of 185 because the national cut-off is too low and would mark a deterioration in the state’s educational standards. In light of concepts like anti-intellectualism and an ‘Olodo Uprising,’ there is a central question at hand: are Nigerian students growing less capable of attaining academic excellence or are there structural barriers that the government has failed to address?
In 2025, Minister Tunji Alausa declared that about 14.8 million Nigerian children remain out of school, owing to factors such as poverty, insecurity, and cultural barriers. Yet, a year down the line, these statistics have only worsened. Many public schools receive little to no funding and have to make do with grossly insufficient budgets. Despite the clamours for increase, the educational sector was allocated a meagre 6.1% of the entire national budget in 2026 which is a notable drop from the 7.3% allocated in 2025.
The infrastructure in the public schools tell a story of systemic neglect and abandonment, where roofs are leaky and the chairs are not nearly enough so learners have to squat on the floor. This piles onto the poor and delayed remuneration of teachers, diminishing their dedication to the education of these students. In April 2026, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Abuja, went on a strike to demand a 40% increase of salaries as well as the payment of outstandings. In cases such as these, where teachers are forced to go on strikes pending the payment of their wages, the quality of education continues to decline. The absence of the teachers causes the students to ultimately miss out on key aspects of the curriculum, and even when these teachers resume, they are largely unmotivated and go about their duties only to the bare minimum.
It is true that anti-intellectualism is on the rise and students have begun swapping books for screens, a direct effect of over-dependence on social media. Academic work thereby takes a backseat to social media doomscrolling, easily digestible reels, and video games. In a conversation with Miss Ogunsanya, a secondary school Literature teacher, she explained that the students often require coercion to read the assigned texts and would much rather read AI summaries or generate essays using ChatGPT. The thorough, rigorous process of studying which required students to engage critically with academic pieces has been truncated by the simplified alternative of AI prompting.
The oversimplification of books and films is both a product of and contributor to the decline in student’s comprehension. Studies have also shown that in the past two decades, the average time of focus has dropped from about 2.5 minutes to 40 seconds, inadvertently affecting student performance. Examination malpractice is another problem that has taken deep root in the Nigerian education system, with the existence of ‘miracle centers’ where students pay to receive help from invigilators. This reliance on external help conditions students to look down on the reading culture and the concept of education in general.
At the tertiary level, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) go on strikes that occasionally last anywhere between eight and nine months, more than enough time for students to develop other interests and completely abandon their educational pursuits. Bishop Godfrey Onah, on this matter, once asked, “How can I tell Nigerian students to love their country when their parents have paid their school fees, and they are sitting at home?” These strikes pose major disruptions to the educational system and overall development of students, yet they are rarely unfounded, as they demonstrate dissatisfaction with the substandard educational facilities and the poor pay of staff.
When teachers are paid their dues, they are able to devote themselves to the growth of students, and issues such as strikes that interrupt the learning process will be eliminated. Also, adequate funding enables the proper furnishing of schools with laboratory equipment, up-to-date technology, and required facilities that ensure a conducive learning environment for students.
Insecurity has also posed a significant threat to education. Across the Northeast of Nigeria, abductions of pupils and students have become rife, contributing significantly to the number of children out of school. Many schools in the rural areas of Northern Nigeria have had to put a pause on their activities indefinitely as a result of the indiscriminate attacks and abductions. Students in these areas are greatly affected because their education becomes delayed, and even when school activities resume, they are unable to pick up from where they left off. In June, insurgents attacked a school in Lassa, Borno, during the ongoing SSCE assessment, abducting several students and teachers. In May, about 40 students were abducted from school alongside their teachers from the Oriire Local Government Area in Oyo State. This trend gained a foothold from the Chibok kidnappings of 2014, where over 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno.
In conditions where safety and survival have to be struggled for, education is rarely the priority of the people. Children watch as their classmates lose their lives, be tortured, and even go missing for long periods with no news. The kind of trauma that these experiences trigger forces a person’s mind outside the four walls of a classroom. The issue of insecurity greatly undermines the safety of students and teachers, discouraging participation and involvement, especially in rural areas.
In addition to these, the Nigerian educational curriculum has failed to adapt to changing times, sacrificing the current needs of the learners for the sake of upholding entrenched and outdated practices. The Imo State Government announced a policy in July 2025 that enforced strict adherence to specific textbooks for a minimum of four years, and the elimination of additional educational material by private school proprietors. The policy was aimed at culling exploitation and reducing the overhead cost of learning materials for parents, however, this retards the regular review process expected for educational materials. If a book cannot be updated until the four year mark, new information discovered during that time is lost to the pupils, and urgent corrections (where necessary) are forfeited.
Christabel Anumenechi, a curriculum scholar, explained to Punch News that the average Nigerian teacher is not trained for the emerging realities of the society in which we live. She called for immediate reforms that bridge the gap between what students are learning and what they need to cope with life outside of the classroom. The educational curriculum requires periodic updates to ensure relevance at local and international levels, so that Nigerian students are equipped with up-to-date information that allows them to smoothly transition into any aspect of society. Education is a process that goes beyond just the teacher and learner, as it is deeply rooted in the country’s political and economic foundations.
The problem with Nigeria’s educational system is multifaceted, it is not limited to the rise of anti-intellectualism alone, as there are structural barriers to be dealt with as well. This calls for a multi-stakeholder approach that centers the learners, the educators, the government, and the immediate community. At the recently concluded International STEM Olympiad in Rome, Nigerian students secured championship titles and a gold medal across three categories. The Southeast Mathematics Olympiad convener and coach, Alex Onyia, confirmed that he had received no support from the Federal Government or any acknowledgement, which he described as underwhelming compared to the national efforts of other represented countries.
The Ministry of Education has also failed to fund the National Mathematics Centre, demoting Nigeria to observer status in the Olympiad, with the last participation dating back to 2019. With such low governmental support and poor funding of educational initiatives, the current mediocrity of the system is unsurprising. There is a need for a far-reaching overhaul of the education system so that Nigeria can avoid the crisis that accompanies a mal-informed, poorly educated public.
Minister Tunji Alausa has expressed a willingness to reform the educational space, beginning with the merger of administrative functions for the Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Senior Secondary School (SSS). The Minister remarked that this measure will address the problem of students dropping out after the junior category, leaving many Nigerians with incomplete education. Many have commented that this reform addresses a symptom of the problem and not the core structural failures that have led the country to this point. The real cause of early school dropout can most often be traced to economic problems, where families can no longer keep up with school fees and examination payments, or disinterest in learners, where students have discovered the loopholes in the system and figure they are better off without school.
The achievements of Nigerian students at the Cambridge Awards and the International Olympiad prove that there is nothing wrong with Nigerian students. In fact, these awards are a testament to the untapped potential within the Nigerian student —a glimpse of the possibilities that lie in our hands. However, as the saying goes, success happens when opportunity meets preparation, and the Nigerian educational system is largely under-prepared. Issues regarding funding and infrastructure, safety and insecurity, as well as curriculum reviews require urgent attention so that the Nigerian youth can reach for remarkable heights and not be relegated by their international peers. There is no doubt that this administrative reform signifies a step towards reorganizing the educational structure, however, there is a need to critically evaluate the core needs and expectations to be addressed, so that the prevalent issues are not repackaged beneath shallow measures and initiatives.
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