UK education project reaches 2m Nigerian children

By Femi Oyelola,Kaduna

The United Kingdom-backed Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) has reached more than two million children and trained over 16,000 teachers across Northern Nigeria in seven years, as the programme formally ended after supporting efforts to improve school enrolment, teaching standards and foundational learning.

The programme, funded through the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, was designed to address learning poverty, particularly in Northern Nigeria, where poverty, insecurity, early marriage and inadequate school infrastructure have kept millions of children out of classrooms.

At its close-out ceremony in Kaduna on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, stakeholders from seven states, the Federal Government and the British Government reviewed the programme’s achievements and discussed how its interventions could be sustained.

Speaking at the event, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, represented by his deputy, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, said education remained one of the most important investments any government could make.

He said Kaduna State had recorded significant improvements in school enrolment and access to education since his administration assumed office in May 2023.

According to him, basic school enrolment increased from 2.17 million in 2022 to more than 2.57 million in 2025, with boys and girls accounting for almost equal numbers.

The governor disclosed that the number of out-of-school children in the state had dropped from about 535,000 when he assumed office to 187,719 following a household-based mapping exercise across the 23 local government areas.

He described the reduction as nearly 65 per cent, adding that Kaduna’s household-based mapping approach had subsequently been adopted at the national level.

Sani said his administration, working with the Federal Government and development partners, had constructed and rehabilitated 3,267 classrooms, provided 2,232 water and sanitation facilities and 180 boreholes.

He added that 87 science laboratories and 29 computer laboratories had also been established, alongside the distribution of 81,540 sets of furniture and 545,748 teaching and learning materials.

The governor said 62 new secondary schools were completed and commissioned within the administration’s first year, while construction of another 50 was ongoing.

Under the Reaching Out-of-School Children Project, he said, 102 new schools had been constructed, while 170 existing schools and learning centres had been renovated.

He, however, stressed that infrastructure alone could not address the education crisis without adequately trained and motivated teachers.

Sani said his administration had extended the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years and sustained training programmes to improve teaching standards.

He disclosed that PLANE trained more than 6,300 teachers in modern approaches to teaching reading and numeracy, nearly 700 headteachers in school leadership and school support officers in teacher mentoring and supervision.

The programme also distributed more than 737,000 teaching and learning materials to 699 public schools in six local government areas and established 87 community learning hubs.

According to him, more than 6,400 members of school-based management committees were also trained to strengthen community participation in education.

He said the intervention reached more than 76,000 vulnerable learners, including girls and children with disabilities, through community-based learning initiatives.

The governor particularly highlighted the programme’s support for girls at risk of early marriage and children with disabilities who had previously been excluded from formal education.

Beyond government statistics, beneficiaries at the ceremony shared accounts of how the intervention had changed their communities.

A mother and leader of a community savings group in Igabi Local Government Area, Mrs Aisha Suleiman, said her 12-year-old daughter, Fatima, could now read Hausa and English fluently after attending a PLANE-supported community learning hub.

She said the programme had also changed the attitude of parents towards girls’ education.

“Before, we thought school was for boys. Now our savings group pays for books and uniforms for our girls,” she said.

Similarly, the District Head of Giwa, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi Dan Giwa, said community members who previously considered formal education unnecessary had begun encouraging parents to enrol their children.

He said the introduction of safeguarding reporting channels and stronger school-based management committees had improved community involvement in protecting children.

At the school level, the Headteacher of L.E.A Primary School, Kawo, Kaduna North, Hajiya Rabi Mohammed, said the programme’s teacher-coaching model had improved classroom instruction.

“My teachers now teach reading with sounds, and my Primary 4 pupils can read a paragraph. That never happened before,” she said.

An educationist at Kaduna State University, Prof Ahmed Tijjani, said PLANE’s support for the Education Management Information System, annual school census and early-grade reading assessments had strengthened education planning through reliable data.

The Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmed, represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary, Dr Folake Olatunji-David, said sustaining the gains would require stronger collaboration between governments, development partners, communities and other stakeholders.

She stressed that education interventions must go beyond increasing enrolment to improving attendance, retention, completion and learning outcomes.

Olatunji-David commended Kaduna, Jigawa and Kano states for adopting the Federal Ministry of Education’s D-NEIS platform for collecting and managing education data.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Pete Vowles, said PLANE had directly reached more than two million boys and girls and trained over 16,000 teachers across Northern Nigeria and at the federal level.

Vowles, who was making his first official visit to Kaduna since assuming office, identified improved teaching materials, safer schools and evidence-based learning as three major achievements that could sustain the programme’s impact.

He said the Universal Basic Education Commission had adopted PLANE’s mathematics materials for the Federal Government’s HOPE Education programme, which is expected to be expanded nationally with World Bank financing.

He also highlighted the development of safeguarding systems in participating states, particularly measures aimed at protecting girls and other vulnerable children from violence and abuse.

On learning outcomes, the British envoy said four-year assessments showed that just over three-quarters of pupils in Primary Four and Six met foundational literacy and numeracy benchmarks.

He added that an independent impact evaluation had confirmed a significant positive effect in schools supported by the programme.

“The test now is whether Nigerian institutions can make these approaches part of their everyday work, so that millions more children benefit,” he said.

Vowles, however, assured that the end of PLANE as a programme would not mark the end of Britain’s education partnership with Nigeria.

He said the UK would continue supporting education development through technical expertise and partnerships with the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education.

The High Commissioner also announced that the BBC World Service would launch the Hausa edition of its children’s education programme, Darsasi, on November 17 to provide learning content for families across Northern Nigeria and West Africa.

He said the initiative would complement classroom learning and expand access to educational content beyond formal school settings.

Other dignitaries at the event included the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Dr Abdulkadir Mu’azu Mayere; Commissioner for Education, Prof Abubakar Sani Sambo; executive chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards; representatives of UNICEF, Save the Children and the Aliko Dangote Foundation.

With the programme now concluded, stakeholders face the challenge of sustaining its interventions through government ownership, stronger institutions and continued investment in teachers, learning materials and inclusive education.