Alausa: 80% of Education Donor Funds Went to North-East, North-West Despite Poor Learning Outcomes.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has revealed that about 80 per cent of donor funding allocated to the education sector over the past decade was concentrated in the North-East and North-West regions, despite the areas continuing to record the lowest literacy and numeracy levels in the country.
The minister disclosed this on Monday while speaking at a special roundtable session during the Education World Forum in London.
Addressing education ministers and global stakeholders, Alausa said new findings from the National Education Data Initiative (NEDI) exposed major gaps in donor funding effectiveness and would now guide better allocation of resources.
“NEDI data revealed a key issue: 80 per cent of donor funds in the last decade went to the North-West and North-East, yet those zones still have the lowest literacy and numeracy rates. We now have the data to redirect resources where they deliver results,” he said.
The minister noted that the Federal Government had shifted its focus from educational inputs to measurable learning outcomes under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Speaking on Nigeria’s Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) reforms, Alausa said the government had successfully harmonised literacy delivery under a single national framework covering both formal and non-formal education systems.
According to him, the government is scaling the RANA programme for Primary One to Three pupils and the Teaching at the Right Level initiative for Primary Four to Six across 15 states through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
“We are scaling RANA for Primary 1 to 3 and Teaching at the Right Level for Primary 4 to 6 across 15 states through UBEC. This uses structured lesson plans, weekly teacher coaching and regular assessments,” he stated.
Alausa also highlighted the role of the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP), developed by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, in addressing Nigeria’s out-of-school children crisis.
He explained that the programme delivers foundational literacy and numeracy skills to out-of-school children and adolescents within three years and provides a pathway for transition into junior secondary education.
“Both tracks now report into NEDI, so for the first time we can monitor formal and non-formal education coverage from one dashboard,” he added.
The minister cited state-led initiatives such as EKOEXCEL, KwaraLEARN and BayelsaPRIME as examples of successful, technology-driven teaching reforms already yielding measurable outcomes.
“The impact is measurable. KwaraLEARN halved foundational learning deficiencies in less than two years, while BayelsaPRIME improved literacy by 20 percentage points in just 19 weeks. The model is working, and we are now scaling it nationally,” he said.
On policy reforms, Alausa disclosed that the Federal Government was finalising a National Policy on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy aimed at creating a sustainable legal and institutional framework for education reforms nationwide.
He further revealed plans to increase the Universal Basic Education Commission’s share of the Consolidated Revenue Fund from two per cent to four per cent, a move expected to significantly boost funding for basic education.
“Through our Partnership Compact with GPE, 70 per cent of funding is tied to measurable outcomes in learning, teacher management and data utilisation,” the minister said.
Alausa maintained that ongoing reforms would help reduce learning poverty across Nigeria and establish a sustainable foundation for long-term educational development.
“With the National Policy on FLN nearly finalised and one standard across formal and non-formal systems, we are building a foundation that will outlast any single programme cycle. That is how we will end learning poverty at scale,” he added.
