Education crisis: 24m pupils drop out before senior school, FG laments

The Federal Government has raised the alarm over the deepening crisis in the nation’s education sector, revealing that about 24 million pupils who enrolled in primary schools failed to advance to senior secondary level.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in Abuja during a ministerial roundtable on zero-rated data and devices for Nigerian teachers.
According to him, data from the Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS), revealed that out of 30 million pupils captured from 21 states, only six million progressed to senior secondary school.
Alausa said, “The information we’re seeing on that digital platform is scary From the 21 states that have uploaded their data, we have about 30 million children in primary schools. From primary to Junior Secondary School (JSS 1), that number drops to 10 million – 20 million children gone. We can’t find them.
Then, from Junior Secondary to Senior Secondary, another four million disappear. It’s scary.”
The Minister described the figures as a major threat to Nigeria’s educational and human capital development, stressing that the trend calls for urgent, targeted interventions to keep children in school, especially those from disadvantaged families.
He said the new digital NEMIS platform would now help government design evidence-based policies and track outcomes across all states. The platform, he explained, collects and processes real-time data to support decision-making at federal, state, and local levels, similar to systems used in Kenya and Sri Lanka.
Alausa revealed that the biometrics of every schoolchild are now being uploaded to the system to ensure accurate tracking and monitoring. He added that by 2026, the annual school census will be fully digital, eliminating manual records.
“It’s not manual anymore. Paper will be taken out completely. The Ministry plans to integrate data from WAEC and JAMB into the system for a unified education database,” he stated.
He expressed appreciation to UNICEF for its technical assistance and to President Bola Tinubu, for his financial and political backing of the digital education initiative.
The Minister also disclosed that over 60,000 learning tablets have been distributed to pupils in Adamawa, Oyo and Katsina States under the Airtech (Amazon Web Services) and BESDA programmes, with another 30,000 to follow soon.
He said the government recently launched interactive smartboards to improve classroom engagement.
“Our goal is that by 2027, every school in Nigeria will have a smartboard,” Alausa stated.
He explained that the new digital tools will gradually replace traditional chalkboards in public schools, promoting a more interactive, multimedia-driven learning environment where pupils can explore, engage and participate actively in lessons.