The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) has shut down 22 unaccredited Colleges of Education following a massive crackdown on illegal colleges of education in the country. Although the names of the affected tertiary institutions have not been made public, the commission hinted that the institutions fall short of its required standard after NCCE conducted personnel audit, financial monitoring in all the 21 federal colleges of education

“The NCCE identified and shut down 22 illegal Colleges of Education operating across the country. “The NCCE conducted personnel audit, financial monitoring in all the 21 federal colleges of education, ” the commission said on its website.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu recently urged the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education, and the National Commission for Colleges of Education to eliminate illegal higher education institutions in the country.

African leaders and stakeholders have been urged to develop future-proof education and digital economy policies that prioritise digital equity and fund indigenous EdTech invention. The call was made by Vice Chancellor Highstone Global University (HGU) Texas USA, Theophilus Aku Ugah, during the institution’s 8th convocation lecture held in Lagos.

Speaking under the theme, ‘The digital renaissance: Reimagining education and economy in Africa,’ Ugah, a professor, underlined the continent’s unwarranted position in the global race. He warned that without deliberate and sustained investment in digital infrastructure and home grown educational technologies, Africa risks being left behind in a rapidly evolving global landscape.

“Success of Africa’s digital renaissance hinges on intentional policy, robust infrastructure, digital skills, and inclusive innovation, but to sustain and expand this progress, Africa must reimagine the future with clarity,” Ugah added.

The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC) has commenced the training of enumerators on automated data collection tools aimed at addressing the challenges of out-of-school children.

According to NMEC, Nigeria has more than 30 million non-literate adults as of 2021. Acting Executive Secretary of NMEC, Dr John Onimisi, said that the exercise was designed to return more than 500,000 learners in the first phase of the programme back to school.

Speaking in an interview at the opening of a two-day training for enumerators, Onimisi said the enumerators are to capture data on youths aged 15 years and above who dropped out of school or never had the opportunity to continue their education.

The Executive Director of Public Education Works Initiative, Nimi Walson-Jack, has called for the establishment of Ministries of Primary Education in all states of the federation to address early childhood learning challenges.

He made the call while speaking with The PUNCH on the sidelines of the Academic Summit and Banquet 2025, held at the Leadership Conference Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State. The summit was organised by the Men of Issachar Vision with the theme, “Building Extraordinary Legacy Towards Academic Feat.”

Walson-Jack lamented that Nigeria still operates the traditional model of one Ministry of Education overseeing primary, secondary, technical and tertiary education. He, therefore, urged a restructuring of the education sector at both the federal and state levels. He said, “One of the challenges of our education sector is the quality of teachers’ training.

To improve the quality of education at the foundational level in Delta State, the State Universal Basic Education Board (D-SUBEB) has committed N7.1 billion to over 200 approved projects aimed at enhancing infrastructure, teaching quality, and access to education across the state’s public primary schools.

The Chairman of D-SUBEB, Hon. Samuel Mariere, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Asaba on Thursday while reacting to the allegation of collecting money from the contractors, said that 90 percent of the projects awarded have already been completed.

Hon. Mariere reaffirmed the board’s commitment to ensuring that all projects are executed to the highest standards and that every naira spent translates into tangible benefits for Delta’s children. “We are not just building structures—we are investing in the future of our state through the minds of our young learners,” he said.

Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the Federal Government’s decision to grant new licences to private universities, saying the move undermines efforts to improve the quality of higher education.

In a statement signed by its president, Christopher Piwuna, the union described the decision as contradictory, noting that it came shortly after the government announced a seven-year moratorium on the establishment of new federal tertiary institutions.

“ASUU watched in awe as the Federal Government announced the moratorium, then proceeded to approve nine new private universities,” the statement said. The union argued that access to university education was no longer the problem, stressing that the challenge lay in sustaining quality.

Nigeria’s federal government reforms to expand scholarship grants for tertiary education students have been hailed by academic and professional bodies as a long-term investment in human capital, with the potential to boost research, healthcare training and technical skills development.

The reforms, announced recently by Dr Maruf Olatunji Alausa, the minister of education, represent the biggest overhaul of the national scholarship programme in more than a decade.

PhD students will now receive NGN750,000 annually (about US$489) (up from NGN500,000), masters students NGN600,000 (up from NGN400,000), while undergraduates, Higher National Diploma (HND) and National Certificate of Education (NCE) students will get NGN450,000 (up from NGN300,000)

Students from Algeria, Morocco and South Africa were awarded nine medals – seven silver and two bronze – along with two honourable mentions at the 32nd International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC).

The event, which brought together hundreds of students from universities worldwide, was organised by University College London and hosted by the American University in Bulgaria, and ended early in August.

It provides a platform for students to demonstrate their problem-solving skills and mathematical ingenuity while connecting them with their peers from around the world as well as exploring potential career paths in mathematics.

The Ethiopian government’s bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), if successful, may help the Horn of Africa country reform and expand its higher education sector, experts claim. Addis Ababa has repeatedly stressed its intention to secure membership by the next WTO ministerial conference, the organisation’s ruling body, to be staged in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 25-29 March 2026.

This has been supported by WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian, who noted in April 2025 that Ethiopia is the most populous nation in its region (its population exceeds 128 million), “notably with a significant young population which will be entering the job market”.

She noted that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali’s ‘Home-Grown Economic Reform Programme’, aimed at boosting private-sector growth through foreign exchange reforms, liberalisation of key services and reduced restrictions on foreign direct investment, had resulted in “strong economic growth, averaging over 6% annually since 2022”. S

The crisis facing Africa’s universities is often told through a familiar and visceral narrative of material decay: overcrowded lecture halls, under-equipped laboratories, and crumbling campuses. While this physical neglect is real, it is merely a symptom of a far more profound and insidious crisis. The untold story is not one of passive decline but of an active, forced transformation of institutional purpose.

Starved of predictable and adequate state support, universities across the continent are being quietly reshaped, their foundational mission as creators of public good eroding under the relentless pressure to become self-sustaining commercial enterprises.

This is not simply a story of austerity; it is the story of a great repurposing where the university’s social compact with the nation is being rewritten under duress. In the starkest terms, African universities are being forced to sell off the continent’s future to keep the lights on today.

Stakeholders have called for the development of a national Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy framework to ensure its speedy integration into education. Also, to advance AI integration in vocational and entrepreneurship education, the experts called for investment in digital infrastructure, capacity building, and a focus on research and innovation.

They made the call at the first National Conference of the College of Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education (COVED), Lagos State University of Education (LASUED), Oto-Ijanikin, Lagos. The four-day event, held at LASUED’s Epe Campus, brought together academics, policymakers, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, curriculum developers and others from across the country to critically examine how AI can aid sustainable development.

At the event, stakeholders advised the federal government to review the curriculum on vocational and entrepreneurship education, so as to incorporate AI-related skills, data analysis and digital entrepreneurship.

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has announced plans to introduce contextualised, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated lesson plans for schools across the country. TRCN Registrar, Dr Ronke Soyombo, disclosed this while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GMIND AI.

Under the partnership, an AI-powered platform will be developed to deliver contextualised and simulated lesson plans tailored for Nigerian classrooms. Soyombo said the initiative would revolutionise lesson preparation and improve teaching quality nationwide.

She added that the platform would be officially launched on October 6, following the unveiling of TRCN’s new website on August 25, which will feature multilingual video guides. Soyombo said: “We want AI-generated lesson plans that are contextualised for our children. Every lesson will also be simulated, because 21st-century learners need to see and experience concepts for learning to be profound.”