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to hawk during school breaks and after school hours in Bauchi State (Chege et al. 2008; Gabresek
& Usman 2013); establishment of girls clubs (ActionAid 2012); Improvement of school
infrastructure such as sports facilities, water and sanitation facilities by communities,
government and donor agencies (Chege et al. 2008; Okojie 2008; UNICEF 2012; ESSPIN 2013)
and; increasing the number of integrated Qur’anic and Islamiyya schools especially across the
northern Nigeria (Chege et al. 2008; Okojie 2008; Humphreys and Crawfurd, 2014).
The influence of international donor organisations on the country’s recent education policy
reforms and interventions are very much evident. Many of the important UBE strategies in
Nigeria are significantly externally driven and supported International Development Partners
(IDPs). Besides projects that are directly supported by IDPs in Nigeria since the early 2000s,
various state strategies and policies have been influenced by them. For example, the country's
Gender in Basic Education Policy evolved from an ongoing DFID project. The document
acknowledges that "This policy was developed in the context of the Girls' Education Project,
developed in 2005 and implemented by the FGN, DFID and UNICEF as a contribution to the
pursuit of EFA/UBE" (FME, 2007:3). Interventions like Conditional Cash Transfer, Teacher
Assessment and Development Programmes, Female Teacher Trainee Scholarship Scheme
(FTTSS), Annual School Census and School-Based Management Committee that contributes to
shaping civil society's participation in education management and decision making also were
inspired by international donor projects. Similarly, while the Nigerian tertiary education sector
is largely underfunded, various policy-oriented research projects are mainly funded or
undertaken by international donor-supported projects across Nigeria (see Humphreys and
Crawfurd, 2014; Ezegwu, 2015; Gershberg et al., 2016; Unterhalter et al, 2017).
These reforms are largely national but some are largely implemented in particular locations that
have much of specific category of children: boys education is largely in the southeast, where
there has been historical low male secondary enrollment (Ezegwu, 2012); Girls Education
Project is implemented in northern states where early marriage and other gender practices
inhibit girls’ educational development and; almijiri education programme is mostly
implemented in the northern Nigeria that have very large number of almajiri children. The IDPs
intervention projects that link to such reforms are also specifically implemented in locations
where interventions are need and in line with the IDPs’ initiatives (UBEC, 2015).
An important observation about the reforms is frequent changes in policies and strategies. For
example, within an eight-year period, 1991-1999, there were five different political regimes,
which had eight Ministers of Education. Each regime and Ministers had varying perspectives of
educational development leading to frequent policy changes (Odukoya, 2013). The Community
Accountability and Transparency Initiative (CATI): was a very important strategy for promoting
transparency and accountability in education but it was scrapped as soon as the Minister that
promoted its establishment left office (Adediran, 2015).
The education provision across sectors and geopolitical zones
Nigeria is liberal in terms of freedom to establish and manage educational institutions. Section
40 of the National Policy on Education (FME, 2013) states that "Government welcomes the
participation of voluntary agencies; communities and private individuals in the establishment
and management of post-basic education provided the set standards are met". Providers of
education in Nigeria vary. Accurate statistics on Nigeria schools are scarce. While Annual School
Census and EMIS document schools by their ownership at various levels, unreliable nature of