LAGOS, NIGERIA– One year after the launch of Nigeria’s National Policy on Non-State Schools (NPNSN), stakeholders have actually raised issues over the sluggish pace of execution across the country, revealing that no state has fully domesticated the policy regardless of its prospective to reinforce partnership in between government and non-state education service providers.
The concerns were raised on Tuesday throughout the NPNSN One Year On: Accountability Dialogue and Press Conference in Lagos State, where the SEED Care & Support Foundation, in partnership with the Coalition of Non-State School Associations, released the NPNSN Tracker, Nigeria’s first evidence-based evaluation of the execution of the National Policy on Non-State Schools.
The occasion accompanied the Executive Strategy Retreat of the Committee of States’ Commissioners of Education in Nigeria (COSCEN), assembled under the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, offering an opportunity for stakeholders to get in touch with state governments to speed up policy domestication and execution.
Tracker Reveals Slow Progress
According to the evaluation, none of Nigeria’s 36 states has totally domesticated the policy one year after its launch.
However, 6 states– Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa– have actually advanced to the stage of examining draft domestication structures, with legislative approval remaining the final action before full application.
Two states, Osun and Ekiti, are currently developing draft domestication instruments, while Rivers State has an existing framework that could support domestication, although no official implementation procedure has begun.
The report likewise discovered that 27 states showed no openly offered evidence of domestication activities at the time of the assessment. At the exact same time, the Federal Capital Area (FCT) follows a different administrative application pathway rather than legal domestication.
Require Stronger Political Dedication
Executive Director of SEED Care & Support Foundation, Olanrewaju Oniyitan, said the success of the policy must no longer be determined by its presence but by its impact on schools, teachers and learners.
“The National Policy on Non-State Schools has moved us from asking whether non-state schools matter to asking how we make the policy work. One year after its launch, success can no longer be measured by the existence of the policy alone. Still, by the level to which it improves chances for schools, teachers and children throughout every state in Nigeria,” she stated.
Executive Director of SEED Care & Support Structure, Olanrewaju Oniyitan She noted that while the policy represents a landmark accomplishment for Nigeria’s education sector, continual government ownership, political commitment and technical support would be required to guarantee meaningful application.
Millions of Learners Might Be Affected
Stakeholders alerted that failure to domesticate the policy might deny millions of learners in non-state schools the intended benefits of the reforms.
According to the coalition, delayed application could weaken cooperation between governments and non-state education providers, limit enhancements in education delivery, and slow development toward achieving nationwide education objectives.
Speaking at the press conference, the National President of the Association of Powerful Educational Development, AFED, Orji Kalu Emmanuel, appreciated the Federal government for prioritising education and pleaded with the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, to implement this policy, which intends to harmonise government policy on education for both state and non-state schools.
Priority Actions
The union called on the Federal government to reinforce application support by providing technical guidance to states, establishing a national monitoring and finding out structure, and sustaining stakeholder engagement across all levels of federal government.
State federal governments were also prompted to accelerate domestication of the policy, reinforce collaborations with non-state schools, and improve education information systems to boost preparation, responsibility and quality control.
The President General, Grand Union of Personal Schools Association (GUPSA), Ogun State, Ustaadh Abdulazeez Ajibola, thanked the Ogun State commissioner for education, who had created the Department of Independent Schools in the state, but still pleaded for the execution of this policy.
“What we are requiring, from the nationwide to the state, is the execution of this policy. The Ogun State commissioner had actually produced the Department of Private Schools in the state, however the policy has actually still not been implemented”, he said.
“We have had workshops, workshops on this policy and it has now been prepared out; we advocate the minister to execute this and domesticate it back to the states,” Abdulazeez even more included.
Check out Likewise: SEED appoints Samuel Badekale as ambassador for budget friendly non-State education.
Representatives of non-state school associations from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states, along with the Advancement Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission who joined essentially, shared experiences on implementation efforts and highlighted the need for higher collaboration in advancing education reforms.
As part of activities marking the policy’s very first anniversary, stakeholders revealed plans for an online worldwide discussion on July 31, ahead of the African Economical Non-State Education Summit set up for November 2026.
The coalition reaffirmed that the NPNSN Tracker will serve as an annual responsibility mechanism to keep an eye on execution development, motivate openness and support continuous policy enhancement, worrying that the supreme goal stays better gain access to, quality, equity and learning results for every Nigerian child, no matter the kind of school they go to.
The President of the Association of Formidable Educational Development (AFED), Lagos State, James Lartey-Lartey, the President, League of Muslim Schools Owners, and the National Treasurer, Association of Model Islamic Schools, Nigeria (AMIS), and a host of other stakeholders existed at journalism conference.