In Kenya and Malawi, governments are entering 2026 with unusually bold education commitments, setting a clear benchmark that Nigeria cannot afford to ignore.
Development Diaries reports that while Kenya is front-loading school funding and expanding teacher recruitment at scale, Malawi has abolished school fees entirely for public primary and secondary education.
These decisions matter not because they are perfect, but because they recognise a basic truth Nigeria continues to evade concerning education systems’ failure when access depends on household income rather than public obligation.
In the first week of January, President William Ruto convened a high-level meeting that produced a significant shift in practice. For the first time, KSh 44 billion, about half of the annual school capitation budget, was released before schools reopened, with Education Cabinet Secretary, Migosi Ogamba, confirming that schools received 50 percent of total funding upfront, with the remainder scheduled across subsequent terms.
This change directly addresses a long-standing implementation failure in the country, as delayed capitation routinely forced head teachers to borrow, suspend activities, or push hidden costs onto parents.
Early disbursement stabilises schools, reduces informal fees, and improves planning, particularly in low-income communities. The government also released KSh 5.6 billion to textbook publishers to ensure learning materials were available from day one and accelerated teacher deployment, bringing total new hires since 2023 to about 100,000.
These measures target system bottlenecks that undermine learning outcomes. Yet even in Kenya, the reform will succeed or fail on equity. If funds and teachers cluster in already advantaged counties while marginalised regions lag behind, inequality will persist behind national averages.
As for Malawi, from January 2026, all public primary and secondary education is free, with President Arthur Mutharika fulfilling a campaign promise to abolish school fees, framing education as a prerequisite for development rather than a privilege for those who can pay.
In a country where cost remains a primary driver of dropout, especially for girls, this is a rights-based intervention with immediate impact.
And Malawi’s move is not without risk. Free education increases enrolment rapidly, placing pressure on classrooms, teachers, and learning materials. Without sustained public financing and donor alignment, quality can decline. But the policy choice itself is unambiguous, as the state, not households, carries the burden of basic education.
This is where Nigeria’s silence becomes indefensible. Africa’s most populous country has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, estimated at over 20 million, with the majority poor, rural, displaced, or living in conflict-affected areas.
Girls are disproportionately affected, particularly at the transition from primary to secondary school. Yet Nigeria continues to operate a fragmented system where ‘free education’ often ends at primary level, junior secondary remains inconsistently funded, and senior secondary education is treated as optional, fee-based, or parental responsibility.
This approach directly contradicts Nigeria’s legal and policy commitments. The Universal Basic Education framework guarantees nine years of schooling, but this is increasingly misaligned with economic reality.
In today’s Nigeria, nine years of education do not secure employability, civic participation, or dignity. Ending public responsibility at junior secondary effectively manufactures dropouts at the most vulnerable stage, especially for girls facing early marriage, domestic labour, or insecurity.
Nigeria’s education crisis is not primarily about culture, parental apathy, or insecurity. It is about financing choices and political priorities. When senior secondary education is left to market forces, poverty becomes a gatekeeper.
When capitation is delayed or inadequate, schools improvise by excluding the poorest. And when states treat education as discretionary spending, out-of-school numbers rise predictably.
The equity consequences are severe, as girls are pulled out first, and children with disabilities are excluded quietly. Internally displaced children disappear from data. Rural communities are left with skeletal schools while urban elites opt out into private systems. The result is a stratified education system that reproduces inequality rather than interrupts it.
What Nigeria must now do, explicitly and urgently, is for the federal government to commit to free, publicly funded education up to senior secondary level, not as a slogan but as a costed national policy. This requires revisiting the scope of basic education to reflect current socio-economic realities, not outdated assumptions.
The National Assembly must amend and strengthen education financing laws to guarantee predictable funding for senior secondary education, with clear federal-state cost-sharing formulas and sanctions for diversion or non-implementation.
State governments must abolish illegal and informal fees that exclude poor children from public secondary schools and publish school-level capitation data so parents can see what is allocated and what arrives.
Education budgets must prioritise teacher recruitment, rural deployment, and inclusive infrastructure, especially for girls, children with disabilities, and conflict-affected communities. Free education without teachers and safe classrooms is symbolic, not transformative.
For their part, development partners must stop funding pilots that bypass public systems and instead support scalable reforms that strengthen state capacity and accountability.
As for everyday Nigerians, including parents and civil society, you should ask state governments whether senior secondary education is free in practice or only in name by demanding evidence. Track how many children complete junior secondary school in your community and how many drop out because of cost.
Insist that education budgets be debated publicly, not passed as technical documents, because education is too important to be hidden in spreadsheets.
Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis is the cumulative result of choices. Kenya and Malawi are showing that different choices are possible, even under fiscal pressure. Nigeria can continue managing exclusion, or it can confront it directly by extending free education to the level that actually secures a future.
Anything less will keep millions of children permanently outside the classroom, while governments debate development in conferences they will never attend.
Photo source: World Bank