PUNCH

Nigeria has 54,434 public primary schools, 7,129 junior secondary schools

By Victor Sam, Abuja

Published: Thursday, 26 Mar 2009

Statistics from the new Roadmap for Nigerian Education Sector has shown that there are 54,434 public primary schools in the country based on the figures adapted from the 2006 National Personnel Audit of the sector.

The figures also showed that there were about 7,129 public junior secondary schools, with a total enrolment figure of 3,266,780 students.

According to the roadmap, which will be presented to all stakeholders in the education sector on Friday, there are 24,422,918 pupils in all the primary schools.

However, according to another data from the 2006 School Census, the country is said to have 87,941 primary schools.

On enrolment figures from the schools, the document stated that there were 13,302,269 or 54.5 per cent of male pupils, while there were 11,302,269 or 45.5 per cent of female pupils in the primary schools.

At the junior secondary school level, the gender disparity indices showed that 55 per cent of the students were males and 45 per cent females.

According to the roadmap, “There are about 2.02m children in pre-primary schools; 500,000 illiterate adults in non-formal education, and 450,000 children in nomadic schools.

“More males are enrolled in the primary schools than females in the north while a near parity is recorded in the south. About 65 per cent of primary school children in the north are males while 35 per cent are females.”

On expected enrolment of pupils, the roadmap stated that about 22m children should have been in pre-primary schools, while 34.92m should have been in primary schools.

For Junior secondary schools, the expected enrolment is put at 9.27m as against the 3.27m; while 39.5m should be enrolled in adult schools.