Over one million out-of-school children return to classrooms under Tinubu, APC campaign council says

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council says more than one million out-of-school children have returned to classrooms under the education reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The council said the achievement was recorded through the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme, alongside other interventions aimed at expanding access to basic education and improving learning outcomes across the country.

The development was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by Dele Alake, spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, citing the 2026 report of the Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) of the Federal Ministry of Education.

According to the report, the government has also trained 1,400 Tsangaya teachers and established 200 bilingual learning centres across 17 northern states as part of efforts to improve access to education.

The council said the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme had reached 7.19 million girls, with 3.7 million enrolled in secondary schools.

It added that more than 10,000 schools had benefited from improved facilities under the government’s education interventions.

To strengthen funding for the sector, the Federal Government allocated ₦3.52 trillion to education in the 2026 budget and secured $552 million for the HOPE-EDU programme.

The programme targets 29 million children, more than 500,000 teachers and 65,000 public schools.

On teacher development, the council said 53,553 teachers had registered under the EduRevamp initiative, while 51,794 joined the first cohort of the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway, a six-month programme offering professional qualifications, certification and licensing.

The programme, backed by ₦2 billion, is expected to cover 250,000 teachers by 2027.