Nigeria implements education reforms to improve teacher training and curriculum quality

Nigeria is implementing comprehensive education reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ to improve access, quality, and human capital development. Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmed, revealed that some teachers have served between 25 and 30 years without professional development. Despite N20 billion being allocated to states for teacher training in 2025, only approximately 10 percent of teachers benefited.

To address this, the Ministry has launched a zero-rated digital teacher development platform, which has already reached over 60,000 teachers in its first phase. The government is also developing a Comprehensive Teacher Policy to make continuous professional development structured and eventually mandatory.

Key reforms include:

• Basic Education: A curriculum review is underway to shift from rote memorization to competency-based learning. A new A-to-D school grading system will be used to guide interventions based on infrastructure and learning outcomes.

• Tertiary Education: The government has invested over N400 billion in critical fields such as medicine, pharmacy, science, and engineering. A seven-year moratorium on the establishment of new universities has been implemented to allow existing institutions to improve staffing and infrastructure.

• Student Financing: The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has reportedly supported over 1.6 million students.