The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has raised concerns over Nigeria’s learning outcomes, disclosing that about 70 per cent of children aged 10 cannot read and understand a simple text.
The commission also said about 10 million young children were currently outside any form of early childhood care, development and education, warning that the weak foundation was contributing to poor learning outcomes later in the education system.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Aisha Garba, disclosed this in Abuja at a three-day capacity-building workshop for state actors on the utilisation of the Early Childhood Care, Development and Education Minimum Standards, Implementation Guidelines and UNICEF Parental and Community Engagement documents.
Garba, who was represented by UBEC Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical), Rasaq Olajuwon Akinyemi, said only 35.6 per cent of Nigerian children aged between 36 and 59 months currently attend any form of early childhood education.
“Only 35.6 per cent of Nigerian children aged 36 to 59 months attend any form of early childhood education. That leaves roughly 10 million of our youngest children outside ECCDE altogether,” she said.
She said the challenge began before children reached primary school, citing analysis of the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey which showed that about 46 per cent of children aged 24 to 59 months were developmentally off track.
According to Garba, the consequences of inadequate early childhood development become more pronounced as children advance through the education system.
She said only about 2.4 million of the 5.9 million children who enter primary school annually remain in the education system by the end of junior secondary school.
The UBEC boss called for early childhood development to be treated as an integrated national priority involving education, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, social welfare and other relevant sectors.
“There is no cheaper place in the education system to buy results,” she said, citing Nobel Laureate James Heckman’s estimate of about 13 per cent annual return per child on high-quality birth-to-five programmes.
Garba directed states to include ECCDE interventions in their State Matching Grant Action Plans, warning that programmes excluded from the plans would not receive funding, procurement or monitoring attention.
“I must be blunt: what is not in the Action Plan will not be funded, will not be procured and will not be monitored,” she said.
She also disclosed that the deadline for states to submit their ECCDE Action Plans for the next intervention year had been extended from September 30 to October 5, 2026.
Garba warned that plans submitted after the revised deadline would not be considered for the intervention year.
Earlier, UBEC Acting Director, Department of Special Programmes and Early Childhood, Dr Chijioke Onwuzurike, said Nigeria had more than 45 early childhood development delivery channels across health, nutrition, education, agriculture and social protection.
She, however, said the multiplicity of channels had resulted in fragmentation, duplication and inconsistent services.
Onwuzurike said states were expected within the next 18 months to map and streamline their existing platforms, establish functional multi-sectoral coordination mechanisms and strengthen the capacity of frontline workers for screening and follow-up.
“School readiness is not something that begins at the primary school gate; by the time a child reaches that gate, it is largely decided,” she said.
Also speaking, UNICEF Nigeria Education Specialist, Yetunde Oluwatosin, said early childhood development was critical to addressing Nigeria’s out-of-school challenge.
Oluwatosin likened early childhood development to laying the foundation of a building, stressing that getting the foundation right would help children enter school at the appropriate age, remain in school and progress through the education system.
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