The Senior Staff Union in Colleges of Education, Nigeria (SSUCOEN) has expressed concern over the government’s continued neglect of teacher education, describing it as a critical foundation for national development.

Speaking in Oyo during the Union’s 40th National Delegate Conference themed “Trade Union Practice in the Contemporary Nigerian Tertiary Education Sector: Clogs, Reflections, and Panacea for Robust Industrial Climate,” SSUCOEN President, Comrade Danladi Ali Msheliza, lamented the declining state of teacher education across the country.

“Colleges of Education remain the only institutions specifically mandated to train teachers for the foundational levels of education. Yet, this crucial sub-sector continues to suffer from underfunding and neglect,” Msheliza said. The Union stressed that no country can achieve meaningful progress without investing in education, particularly in the training of teachers.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced the availability of 2,014 permanent and pensionable teaching positions to replace educators who have left the service. The deadline for submitting applications via the TSC online recruitment portal is Monday, May 19, 2025..

These vacancies are distributed across primary, junior secondary, and secondary schools nationwide. The largest share, 1,309 positions, is for P1 certificate holders in primary schools. Junior secondary schools have 32 vacancies, while secondary schools are looking to fill 673 teaching posts.

Applicants must be Kenyan citizens registered with TSC. For primary school roles, a P1 certificate is required. Candidates applying for junior secondary or secondary school positions must hold a diploma in education, a minimum KCSE grade of C+, and at least a C+ in two teaching subjects.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has assured students it was working assiduously towards building a technology driven system that would improve easy access to its loans. This was as the FUND disclosed that no fewer than 320,000 students have thus far been paid with many more currently undergoing verification process to enable their payments.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer NELFUND,Akintunde Sawyerr gave the assurances on Tuesday in Abuja, while addressing Polytechnics , Monotechnics and Institutes at a Stakeholders Engagement Session/ Technical Workshop on NELFUND System Automation and Loan Application Processes.

Sawyerr noted that the FUND was targeting a platform where students could access loan with confidence and without stress in a manner that was transparent and accountable. He said: “At NELFUND our mission goes beyond giving loans. It’s about opening doors, it’s about making sure every young Nigerian who is willing to learn and grow has a real shot regardless of their background, location, or chosen path of study.

A recent call to action from educationist Mrs. Eugenia Nwanekwu has highlighted the need for a comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s educational curriculum. This appeal comes on the heels of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) report on the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which revealed a dismal performance by candidates.

The statistics are staggering, as 75% of candidates scored below 200, while a mere 1% scored above 300.
These numbers have sparked concerns about the effectiveness of the current curriculum in preparing students for tertiary education.

Mrs. Nwanekwu, a retired director in the Rivers State Ministry of Education, emphasised the need for a curriculum that aligns with current educational needs. “The curriculum should be reformed to align with current education needs. It is possible that the current curriculum is outdated and does not meet the needs of today’s students,” she stated.

The Federal Government has attributed the over 14.8 million of out-of-school children in Nigeria to factors such as poverty, insecurity, and cultural barriers, urging strong partnerships by stakeholders including development partners to address the menace.

Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, stated this on Tuesday while declaring open the International Conference on Smart Education and Digital Literacy (ICSE 2025), organized by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

Alausa highlighted various efforts of the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address the out-of-school syndrome. He said, “Despite our progress, we recognize the persistent challenge of out-of-school children, with numbers exceeding 14.8 million.

African universities are caught in a colonial and neoliberal trap that they must escape in order to provide “authentic learning” – even though this will likely take many decades, says Fikile Vilakazi, the director of the gender equity unit at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa.

“The establishment of the decolonial university in Africa can only be achieved through a return to African ways of being, including in relation to how Africans, as interconnected abantu (people) or batho (people), understand knowing, knowledge-making and learning,” Vilakazi said.

At present, however, “the university is a trap”, she says, and it will take a “century-long process of rupturing” for the new university of the future to emerge from present structures. In the meantime, and in an effort to escape the “trap”, a key question that Vilakazi seeks to address is whether the change that is sought may be achieved in one great step or whether it will have to be brought about more gradually.

For more than half a century African universities have been fully invested in denouncing colonisation and exalting decolonisation. In a piece, ‘From dumb decolonisation to smart internationalisation’, published on this platform a while back, I argued that this preoccupation with decolonisation has eclipsed African universities’ gaze on the tectonic political, economic, and technological shifts that have been sweeping the world.

The morass of colonisation has long morphed into a hegemonic behemoth – an intricate web of political, economic, diplomatic and intellectual dominance that has shaped global systems for decades. This enduring structure has not only dictated the terms of international engagement, but has also reinforced asymmetries in the domain of science, technology and knowledge.

Meanwhile, Africa has remained largely on the margins, often caught up in cycles of lamentation over its long and painful colonial past. Rather than simply continuing to bemoan this history, the continent must now reckon with its present position and reclaim its agency by reimagining its future, guided by home-grown priorities, values, interests and ambitions – and, equally importantly, leveraging fast-shifting global alliances.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on Wednesday, said it would be supporting the North-East States of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe with $50 million intervention to advance education programmes in the region ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency and conflicts.

Speaking to newsmen in Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital, during the launch of the second phase of multi-year resilience education program (MYRP) funded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Vanessa Lee, the UNICEF Chief of Education, said the fund would enhance access to learning in schools and non-formal education centres.

She said the objectives of the event were to officially kick off the implementation of the three-year project 2025-2027, which aims at building on the efforts and achievements made in the first phase of the project that ended in November 2024.

The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to achieve the 95% digital literacy target by the year 2030. Meanwhile, the government has appointed the President of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), David Daser, as the Chairman of the newly established National Digital Literacy Technical Working Committee.

Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, stated this at a Digital Literacy Workshop on: “Building Sustainability Towards Achieving 95% Digital Literacy Level by 2030,” hosted by the agency in Abuja.

He noted that the goal of the workshop was clear: to strengthen partnerships that will drive digital literacy across Nigeria, build a unified framework for collecting and managing data on digital literacy efforts, and set a clear path toward achieving 70% digital literacy penetration by 2027 and 95% penetration by 2030.

The federal government, through the National Universities Commission (NUC), has presented provisional licences to 11 newly approved private universities. The universities include City University, Ayetoro, Ogun State; University of Fortune, Igbotako, Ondo State; Eranova University, Mabushi, FCT; Minaret University, Ikirun, Osun Annexe; and Abubakar Toyin University, Oke-Agba, Kwara State.

Others are Southern Atlantic University, Uyo, Akwa Ibom; Lens University, Ilemona, Kwara; Monarch University, Iyesi-Ota, Ogun; Tonnie Iredia University of Communication, Benin City, Edo; Isaac Balami University of Aeronautics and Management, Lagos; and Kevin Eze University, Mgbowo, Enugu State.

Speaking at the presentation, Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa noted that a true university should be a hub for education, talent development, and innovation, supported by competent staff and modern facilities, prioritising research and extending beyond local boundaries to global relevance.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has expressed dismay over what it called inaccurate, misleading and dangerously speculative reports in the public space regarding the administration of the student loan scheme.

The response to the reports was contained in a statement by NELFUND’s Director, Strategic Communications, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi on Thursday in Abuja. According to the statement, the reports, which suggested “misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, are entirely false, grossly irresponsible, and deeply damaging to the integrity of an institution established to deliver financial hope to millions of Nigerians.”

It said: “This is a coordinated distortion of facts that undermines public trust, weaponises misinformation, and threatens the credibility of a national intervention still in its infancy.” NELFUND said that no funds have been mismanaged, stolen, or are unaccounted for under the current NELFUND student loan scheme.

Established through the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act of 2004, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has the broad mandate to provide basic education for all all children in Nigeria, from primary to Junior Secondary School (JSS) while also declaring basic education compulsory and a fundamental human right for all school age children.

Specifically, the commission aims to reduce the number of school drop-outs and out-of-school children, improve quality and efficiency of basic education, as well as promote the acquisition of fundamental literacy, numeracy, life skills and values for life-long education and useful living.

Sadly, the general condition of basic education remains parlous and desultory despite impressive efforts of a pathetically few states to build classrooms, provide libraries and furniture as well as offer free meals to make education attractive. No less than 13 million Nigerian children remain out-of-school. Teachers in public primary and secondary schools are poorly motivated and do not benefit from continuous training.