The Federal Government has announced plans to reconstruct 195,000 classrooms across Nigeria as part of efforts to improve the country’s basic education infrastructure. Additionally, the government will install 28,000 toilets and drill 22,900 boreholes to ensure access to clean water in schools nationwide.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this during the third edition of the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing Session in Abuja. He also revealed that President Bola Tinubu has approved N40 billion to complete the long-abandoned National Library project, which aims to support academic and research needs.
Alausa highlighted the pressure on the government to create more universities, despite many existing institutions lacking the capacity to accommodate students. He pointed out that Nigeria currently has 64 federal universities, 67 state universities, and 147 private universities, yet the total undergraduate enrollment stands at only 875,000 students, with private universities accounting for just 7.5% of enrollments.
“What we need to do now is to strengthen the capacity of existing universities rather than opening new ones,” he said, emphasizing the need to focus on improving infrastructure, building laboratories, and hiring top-quality faculty members.
To tackle unemployment and skills gaps, the government has allocated N120 billion for students’ entrepreneurial training. According to Alausa, vocational and technical education will focus on a dual-mode training system, where students will spend three days in school, one day in specialized training, and one day in workshops to acquire practical skills.
The minister also urged specialized universities to stick to their core mandates, rather than expanding into non-technical courses that should be reserved for conventional universities.
Concerns Over Proliferation of Tertiary Institutions
Alausa criticized Nigerian lawmakers for the indiscriminate approval of new tertiary institutions, revealing that nearly 200 bills proposing new universities are pending at the National Assembly.
“We need to stop this from happening. There’s so much pressure on the president, but we have to be strategic in improving existing institutions instead of creating new ones,” he stated.
Addressing speculation about scrapping the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the minister clarified that the fund will continue indefinitely, rather than being phased out by 2030.
He stressed that more resources will be directed towards building engineering workshops, laboratories, and recruiting high-quality lecturers to improve university education in Nigeria.
The Federal Government’s renewed focus on education infrastructure, vocational training, and higher education reforms signals a commitment to addressing long-standing challenges in Nigeria’s education system.
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