Tinubu returns 1m out-of-school children to classrooms – APC PCC

…Says NELFUND disbursed ₦372.62bn in student loans By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA: The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council APC-PCC has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has returned over one million out-of-school children to classrooms. The Council said this in a statement on Wednesday by its Spokesperson, Dele Alake, citing the Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) 2026 report of the Federal Ministry of Education.

The report credits the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme for the feat. It also says the programme trained 1,400 Tsangaya teachers and set up 200 bilingual centres across 17 northern states. The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) has reached 7.19 million girls, of whom 3.7 million are enrolled in secondary schools.

Over 10,000 schools have also benefited from improved facilities, according to the council. On funding, the Federal Government reportedly allocated a record ₦3.52 trillion to education in the 2026 budget. It also secured $552 million for a basic education programme targeting 29 million children, over 500,000 teachers and 65,000 public schools. According to the council, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund NELFUND has processed 1,659,853 student loan applications and disbursed ₦372.62 billion.

Of this, ₦192.89 billion went to tuition and ₦179.73 billion to upkeep allowances, across 319 tertiary institutions. The statement said the administration has resolved the age-long dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and implemented the agreement providing for a 40 per cent increase in academic staff remuneration and improved welfare benefits.

The Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund, it added, has paid out ₦28 billion to 15,000 workers in 153 public institutions. Eligible staff can access loans of up to ₦10 million for housing, healthcare, transportation and education. On technical and vocational education and training (TVET), the scheme has drawn over 2.8 million applications. A total of 156,446 verified trainees are receiving free training, monthly stipends and start-up support.

Alake said more than ₦65.7 billion has been disbursed to trainees and ₦30.2 billion to training centres. Thirty-eight technical colleges have been rehabilitated, and technical education now covers tuition, boarding, textbooks and uniforms at no cost to students. On teacher development, Alake said 53,553 teachers have registered under EduRevamp, and 51,794 have joined the first cohort of the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP).

The six-month programme offers professional qualifications, certification and licensing. Backed by ₦2 billion, it targets 250,000 teachers by 2027, he added. Alake added that in medical education, ₦110 billion is going into rehabilitating 18 federal medical schools across the six geopolitical zones. Nursing enrolment rose from 81,480 in 2023 to 114,300 in 2025.

Twenty science, technology, engineering and medical sciences institutions have been approved, and 12 engineering and technology faculties are targeted for rehabilitation. The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, said the success of the reforms would be judged by their impact on students, teachers and institutions, not by the money allocated or the number of programmes introduced.

“Our measure of success is not merely the amount of money allocated to education or the number of programmes introduced. It is the difference these interventions make in the lives of our children, students, teachers and institutions,” he said.