Alausa urges journalists to use data-driven reportage for quality learning outcomes
By Uji A. iliyasu, Abuja
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has urged education correspondents nationwide to use available data to hold state governments and other stakeholders accountable for learning outcomes and the quality of education delivery.
Alausa spoke in Abuja on Wednesday at the Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN) 2026 Annual Education Summit, themed “Three Years of the Tinubu Administration: Assessing Reforms, Progress, and Challenges in Nigeria’s Education Sector.”
He urged journalists to move beyond routine coverage and interrogate government policies using credible figures from the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure Management System (NEDIMS), which he said now gave reporters the tools to question gaps in infrastructure, teacher availability and enrollment.
“Without data, you cannot do anything. We want you journalists to go to the website and use those data to challenge governors and local government chairmen,” he said, adding that the platform showed teacher-to-classroom and student-to-teacher ratios down to individual schools.
The minister said the administration’s education reforms were built around six priority areas: technical and vocational education, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, digital transformation, reducing out-of-school children, quality assurance and strengthening governance.
He credited agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other unions with preventing disruption in tertiary institutions.
“For once, in three years, we have not had any stoppage in our tertiary education system,” he said.
On rankings, Alausa said Nigeria now had 24 universities among the world’s top 1,000, up from 21 five years ago, with 17 of them public institutions. He noted that public universities had overtaken private ones at the top of the domestic rankings for the first time since 2025.
The minister flagged a sharp drop-off between primary and junior secondary enrolment, with about 25 million children in primary school against just over five million in junior secondary. He linked this to Nigeria’s roughly 90,000 primary schools compared with only 16,000 junior secondary schools, an access ratio of one to eight.
He said more than one million children had been moved from the streets into school over the past 24 months, though he acknowledged existing out-of-school figures were inadequate for planning and that the ministry was working with the National Bureau of Statistics on a fresh household survey.
Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmed, called on journalists to support reforms through responsible reporting that kept the public informed of progress and gaps.
Universal Basic Education Commission Executive Secretary Aisha Garba said no child should be left behind regardless of background or location, and commended the ministry’s leadership.
NUJ FCT council chairman Grace Ike said government, parents, school administrators and the media needed to collaborate to safeguard learning outcomes.
Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communication, Ikharo Attah, stressed evidence-based reporting over assumption, and urged information officers to help publicise sector achievements.
ECAN chairman Chuks Ukwuatiu5 said the summit was designed to give an honest account of reforms and challenges, from funding and infrastructure gaps to teacher development and millions of out-of-school children, and to encourage engagement among policymakers, practitioners and the media.
The event closed with award presentations to the Minister and other agency heads, alongside technical sessions from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the National Universities Commission.