‘Teaching Under Trees Must End’- Education Commission Gives States One Year To Fix Schools

The National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) has given state governments a 12-month ultimatum to comply with the National Minimum Standards for Secondary Education, a benchmark for all aspects of secondary education, including teacher qualifications, teacher-student ratio, and infrastructure.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Iyela Ajayi, stated this during an interaction with journalists in Abuja, emphasising that NSSEC is pressing forward with reforms despite not receiving any part of the two percent Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) earmarked for its interventions.

Ajayi noted that the agency is determined to reshape the sector through standards enforcement, teacher development, digital expansion and infrastructure upgrades.

Ajayi, a former provost of two federal colleges of education, recalled that although NSSEC came into force years earlier, it became fully operational only in 2023 after the bill establishing it was signed into law.

The Executive Secretary, who commended the massive support being extended to NSSEC by the Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa and the Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Ahmad, said the Commission has focused on building frameworks that would overhaul the quality, structure and accountability of senior secondary education nationwide.

One of its major milestones, he noted, is the rollout of the National Minimum Standards for Secondary Education launched in February.

“The National Minimum Standards has to do with benchmarking requirements for all aspects of secondary education. How many teachers do you have? What should be their qualification? What should be the teacher-student ratio? The infrastructures that you have on-ground, and so on and so forth.

“The type of buildings you have, the quality of the buildings, all these are clearly spread out in the Minimum Standards.

“We have developed the Minimum Standards and it was launched in February this year, and we have distributed the Minimum Standards to all the states of the Federation.

“We have given them 12 months within which to comply, because the law establishing this commission has not only given us the power to produce Minimum Standards, but to enforce it. So we have given them 12 months to comply,” he said.

According to him, state governments have a one-year compliance window, after which NSSEC will begin nationwide enforcement inspections.

“There must be standards and uniformity. We cannot continue with a situation where students learn under trees or in classrooms without roofs. Those days must end,” he added.

Ajayi explained that the Commission is also intensifying efforts to raise teacher quality through continuous professional development, including training programmes for English and Mathematics teachers and capacity building on AI-driven teaching methods for educators and school administrators.

He outlined NSSEC’s priority areas to include ongoing teacher training, recruitment and retention of qualified teachers, digital learning and ICT integration, and large-scale infrastructure rehabilitation. Other focus points, he said, are technical and vocational education, inclusive learning for girls and persons with disabilities, curriculum reforms centred on practical skills, and improved school governance.

On curriculum changes, he emphasized NSSEC’s role in recent national adjustments involving the reintroduction of History, reduction of curriculum overload and expansion of skill-based learning.

Despite financial constraints, the NSSEC boss said the Commission has facilitated the upgrade of 50 senior secondary schools, at least, one in each state, through constituency projects.

” These include new classrooms, laboratories and ICT facilities. We are not yet like UBEC but the little we have done is already changing the narrative,” he said.

Ajayi revealed that NSSEC is also engaging telecom firms for subsidised broadband access in schools and working with development partners to secure 30,000 tablets for teachers nationwide. Plans are underway, he added, to make computer literacy compulsory for all students and expand offerings in robotics, artificial intelligence and data science.
But he emphasised that these ambitions remain limited by lack of direct funding.

“Our major challenge is funding, funding, funding.
“The law provides 2 per cent of CRF for NSSEC interventions, but as I speak to you, not a kobo has been released,” he said.

Ajayi noted that the Commission continues to draw support from development partners and stressed that the success of the reforms also depends heavily on state governments, which control the majority of senior secondary schools.

He expressed optimism that full release of the statutory funds would accelerate implementation and help the Commission achieve its mission.