Nigeria’s education crisis: Between decline and pockets of innovation

“Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” This African proverb underscores the truth that education remains the foundation of any nation’s development. In most parts of the world, it is treated as a fundamental human right and the bedrock of social mobility. Yet in Nigeria, education has been allowed to wither, and the consequences are becoming ever more visible.

The statistics alone are sobering. UNICEF estimates that 20.2 million Nigerian children are out of school, the highe