What happens when Nigeria’s esteemed examination board, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), keeps moving the goalpost to facilitate the admission process? For the 2026 admission cycle, the national cut-off mark was 150 for universities and colleges of nursing sciences, and 100 for colleges of education and polytechnics. This means candidates need only 37.5% and 25% accuracy on the CBT examination to meet the national minimum requirement for entry into tertiary institutions. In 2020, the mark was set at 160, down from 2016’s 180, indicating a slow but persistent decline. The board sets the tone for the country’s tertiary admission process by pegging the minimum required cutoff mark. All universities, colleges of education and polytechnics build on this to set their individual marks. JAMB’s lowering of its cut-off mark signals a critical decline in Nigeria’s education standards.
JAMB’s CBT examination is regarded as one of the most credible in Nigeria’s education system. This downward trend in benchmarks exposes and supports underprepared students, fueling a widespread education epidemic. Educators, stakeholders, and many Nigerians fear that continually lowering standards will cause the country’s quality of education to keep dropping and create a system that breeds ill-prepared students. Secondary school graduates become university undergraduates who have not developed a culture of studying and critical thinking, posing a serious threat to Nigeria’s workforce. A report by Proten International revealed that nearly 60% of Nigeria’s employers say that graduates are not job-ready because they lack the required academic foundation, skill set, and experience needed to be employable. Ultimately, these individuals enter the labour market unskilled, perpetuating a cycle that begins in the education sector and bleeds into the economy.
What Fuels Nigeria’s Education Epidemic?
Several factors contribute to Nigeria's declining academic quality. JAMB’s continued benchmark reduction is a symptom and enabler of the decline. Since JAMB introduced computer-based exams in 2013, student performance has consistently been subpar. JAMB recorded a cumulative total of 21,844,733 candidates from 2013 to 2025, with a staggering 76.74% scoring below half, and only 23.26% scoring 200 and above. The lowest cut-off mark was recorded in 2017, at 120. The board defended this low benchmark by claiming it would make Nigeria’s difficult and competitive admission process less tedious for candidates. Instead of addressing the underlying issue—Nigeria’s crumbling education system—the board continuously reduces the benchmark to accommodate unprepared students, thus enabling a system that rewards mediocrity and low effort. As the saying goes, a child is a product of society. In this case, the children are Nigeria’s students, and the society is Nigeria’s education system. Candidates perform poorly because the education system fails to adequately equip them with the foundational knowledge required to excel in critical examinations such as UTME, WAEC, and NECO.
Beyond enabling examination boards, education suffers severe underfunding. The federal government allocated ₦3.25 trillion to education in 2025, representing only 7.3% of the total national budget of ₦47.90 trillion, well below UNESCO’s recommended 15-20% benchmark. In 2026, the education budget allocation remained the same at ₦3.25 trillion, despite the national budget increasing to ₦68.32 trillion. This means that in 2026, education gets just 5.15% of the budget, a significant decrease from the previous year, and a major shift away from UNESCO’s recommendation.
Nearly 1 in every 2 Nigerians is below 18, yet the country fails to prioritise education and youth development. This funding gap impedes learning outcomes; schools at all levels face crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and poor teacher welfare. Public schools continue to operate in appalling conditions where students cannot realistically learn. Meanwhile, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) fund remains underutilised because state governments largely ignore it. As of March 2026, UBEC reported over ₦98 billion in unclaimed education funds, with at least 21 states and the FCT failing to access them. By not accessing these grants, states essentially turn a blind eye to Nigeria’s worsening education epidemic.
Nigeria has about 10.2 million out-of-school children, with the Northeast and the Northwest accounting for 28% and 45% of that figure, respectively. This is driven by the persistent insecurity and cultural limitations that have plagued the country for years. At least 2,416 students have been abducted in places of learning since 2014, prompting the government to order the closure of hundreds of schools. These attacks are concentrated in the North, with states like Plateau, Yobe, Kebbi and Zamfara being the most hit. According to UNICEF’s 2023 Education Factsheet, Kebbi, Zamfara and Bauchi states record the highest percentages of out-of-school children in Nigeria, peaking in senior secondary school education at 65%, 63%, and 73%, respectively. Literacy rates are critically low in these regions because of the harsh educational climate: Yobe, Katsina, and Zamfara record the lowest literacy rates in the country at 7.23%, 10.36%, and 19.16%, respectively. When compared to safer regions such as Imo and Lagos with high literacy rates, 96.43% and 96.30%, the regional disparities in educational conditions become more apparent.
Children fortunate enough to remain in schools are still not guaranteed quality education. The system is heavily crippled by the calibre of its educators and the state of learning environments. Students, after all, are only as good as their teachers. Nigeria has just over 915,000 teachers for more than 31.7 million students, revealing a critical classroom deficit. Out of this limited number, one in every three educators is unqualified. Additionally, public school classrooms frequently squeeze 50 to 70 students into a single space, forcing some to sit on the floor or window sills. Between 2019 and 2025, 18 states failed to recruit new teachers, doing nothing to salvage the crumbling sector. Insufficient funding, persistent insecurity, decaying infrastructure, a lack of qualified teachers, and poor governance intervention collectively fuel Nigeria’s education epidemic. The math is simple: a weak education system produces underprepared students, which inevitably trickles down into an unskilled labour force.
The Implications
In Q2 2024, senior secondary school certificate holders recorded the highest level of unemployment at 8.5%, indicating that limited educational attainment is a major barrier to employment opportunities. In the same quarter, the unemployment rate for Nigerians with tertiary education certificates sat at 4.8%. Nigerians with degrees and those with limited educational attainment both experience unemployment and underemployment. Both groups lack the tangible experience, knowledge, and skills required for the modern job market. Beyond delivering subpar education, Nigerian schools also use outdated curricula that fail to equip students with the technical, digital, and practical tools needed to compete. This creates youths who are willing to work but are not job-ready.
While Nigeria produces 2.1 million graduates and 4.2 million job seekers annually, the economy only generates approximately 650,000 new job opportunities each year, leaving 3.5 million people behind. Nigerians are graduating faster than jobs are being created. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) recommended that Nigeria create 4.5 million jobs annually to adequately bridge the employment gap. Unfortunately, Nigeria fails to meet this requirement, and the job market remains harsh for job seekers.
Unemployment is only a part of the picture. Nigeria’s weak education system turns the country’s greatest asset, its human capital, into a liability. If the workforce is not skilled enough to innovate, create jobs, and solve critical national problems, economic stagnation is inevitable. An education system that cannot refine raw labour into highly skilled human capital essentially traps the country in a cycle of low productivity, stunting long-term economic growth. This deficit translates to weak professional capacity across various sectors. To survive, many professionals take on low-productivity roles or enter the informal economy; notably, the informal sector currently accounts for 76.7% of Nigeria’s employed population. This skill gap exacerbates Nigeria’s employment crisis, particularly within the formal sector. Without deliberate measures to cultivate skilled human capital through education, millions will remain unemployable, and sustainable job creation will stall, limiting Nigeria’s economic growth.
Possible Policy Options
The state of education in Nigeria directly affects economic growth. Illiteracy rates remain high in Northern Nigeria, children continue to learn under harsh security conditions and decaying infrastructure, and a large portion of teachers remain unqualified. All these trickle down to low-skilled human capital and stagnant economic development. Nigeria can adopt the following policy options to rebuild its education system:
- Prioritising Adequate Funding for the Education Sector: State governments and the Ministry of Education must work together, with support from the federal government, to address the root causes of this failure. Federal and state budget allocations for education must increase significantly to align with UNESCO’s recommended benchmark. Furthermore, these funds must be used appropriately, ensuring that allocations accurately match expenditure. State governments must also utilise the often-ignored UBEC funds. The framework to close the funding gap already exists; however, all levels of government must work together and prioritise quality education.
- Address Nigeria’s Insecurity and Infrastructural Deficiencies: Addressing insecurity is equally paramount to containing this epidemic. Students cannot learn in unsafe environments, and teachers cannot instruct when their lives are at risk. The continued abduction of school children, as well as the closure of schools, will continue to widen Nigeria’s regional literacy gap as long as insecurity persists. The federal government must address this security issue urgently to restore safe learning environments across the country. Additionally, closing the infrastructure gap in the sector is imperative. Many public schools suffer from dilapidated buildings and lack the innovative technology required for digital learning. The government must equip schools nationwide with modern tools and robust infrastructure if the quality of education is to improve.
- Ensure Adequate Teacher Training and Remuneration: Teacher training must be prioritised, alongside a comprehensive restructuring of remuneration and benefits. Many Nigerians view teaching as low-income employment due to the uncompetitive salaries and benefits. The average starting salary for teachers is between ₦60,000 and ₦250,000 for private schools and ₦50,000 - ₦150,000 for public schools, which barely covers their basic monthly needs. Consequently, qualified professionals would rather lend their expertise to other fields than teach Nigeria’s future generation, leaving the sector without talented educators. Schools and state governments must organise regular training workshops and fund teachers’ continuous professional development. Teachers’ salaries must be adjusted to reflect current economic realities and the immense social impact of their work. Standard welfare benefits, such as health insurance and housing allowance, must also be provided for educators. This will encourage more qualified professionals to take on teaching roles and restore dignity to the profession.
- Stronger Examination Processes and Standards: National examination boards such as JAMB, WAEC, and NECO must strengthen their examination methods. Centres that facilitate cheating and examination malpractice must be eliminated to restore credibility. JAMB must stop its trend of reducing benchmarks to accommodate poorly performing students; instead, the board should enforce high educational standards that push students to excel. Lowering the bar merely conceals the crisis rather than addressing the root causes of underperformance. If examination boards uphold strict education standards, students and educators will adjust and strive to meet them.
- Restructuring Education Curricula: The Minister of Education must revise school curricula across all levels. Technology must be integrated into Nigeria’s educational framework to ensure that every student can compete with their global counterparts. As technology evolves, the global job market shifts, and students and professionals alike must adapt with it. The use of artificial intelligence and advanced digital tools is completely transforming the way the world learns and works. Nigeria must keep pace with these global innovations to ensure that young people are not structurally disadvantaged after obtaining their degrees. The curriculum and coursework across primary, secondary and tertiary schools must be revamped to prioritise digital literacy, technical skills and practical problem solving.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s education epidemic will continue to persist as long as it is not addressed. The government, Ministry of Education, examination boards, schools, teachers and students all have a vital role to play in reversing the decline. Nigeria’s human capital trajectory is entirely dependent on reviving the quality of education. To protect the future, Nigeria must train teachers, restore educational standards, unlock financing opportunities, and address insecurity. The country’s future begins with education; it is the foundation of the entire economy, and if it crumbles, the rest of the nation goes down with it. Policies that safeguard the sector must be urgently prioritised. By embracing technological innovation, executing strategic planning and fostering partnerships, Nigeria can end its education crisis and boost economic development.
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