The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa has announced the upgrade of 38 federal and state technical colleges across Nigeria as part of comprehensive reforms aimed at equipping young Nigerians with globally competitive skills.

Speaking on Monday at the 2025 Quarterly Citizens and Stakeholders Engagement on the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative in Abuja, Alausa said the upgrades are part of a broader effort to reposition the education sector for a skill-based, knowledge-driven economy.

The engagement session focused on strategic priorities, unveiling of key initiatives, and addressing persistent challenges, particularly the high number of out-of-school children.

Alausa outlined six core priority areas under the ministry’s reform agenda, including reducing the number of out-of-school girls, enhancing quality assurance, and improving access through targeted national programs.

He also highlighted the introduction of a dual-training model in the upgraded technical colleges, where students will now spend 80% of their time on hands-on training and 20% in the classroom — a shift designed to better prepare them for real-world job markets.

NESRI, the centre piece of the reform, includes initiatives on literacy improvement, curriculum reform, and data digitisation, and is aimed at transitioning Nigeria from a resource-based to a knowledge-driven economy.

Alausa said, “Artisans will be paid to mentor trainees, establishing a new value chain in the education sector.

“Our goal is to train 5 million young Nigerians with globally relevant skills within four years.

“NESRI addresses issues of access, quality, inclusivity, research, and professional development in education.”

The minister noted that Nigeria currently has 15 million out-of-school children and over 45 million classified as learning poor.

He said adolescent girls, particularly the 6 million aged 12–19 currently out of school, remained a key focus of the reforms.

To address this crisis, the minister said 25,000 children have been integrated into formal education through NESRI, while 4,000 Tsangaya teachers have been trained to support inclusive education.

Alausa announced that the National Examinations Council, and the West African Examinations Council would begin conducting computer-based tests from November 2025, with full digitisation of all national examinations, including JAMB, by 2027.

He said the move was to tackle examination fraud and enhance integrity.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released a statistical breakdown of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), revealing that over 1.5 million of the 1.95 million candidates scored below 200/400.

In a post on its official X on Monday, JAMB highlighted that a total of 1,955,069 candidates sat for the examination, and of this number, a significant 1,534,654 candidates—representing 78.5%—scored below the 200 mark.

A breakdown of the results shows that only 4,756 candidates (0.24%) achieved scores of 320 and above, while 7,658 candidates (0.39%) scored between 300 and 319.

In total, just 12,414 candidates (0.63%) scored 300 and above.

For the 250-299 score range, 73,441 candidates (3.76%) were recorded, while a larger proportion, 334,560 candidates (17.11%), scored between 200 and 249.

The category with the highest number of candidates was the 160 and 199 range, with 983,187 candidates (50.29%).

Further down the scale, 488,197 candidates (24.97%) scored between 140 and 159, and 57,419 candidates (2.94%) scored between 120 and 139.

A percentage of candidates, 3,820 (0.20%), scored between 100 and 119, while 2,031 candidates (0.10%) fell below the 100 mark.

In addition to the overall results, JAMB also disclosed that 40,247 underage candidates were allowed to participate in the examination due to their “exceptional abilities.”

However, only 467 of these candidates (1.16%) achieved scores that meet the defined threshold for “exceptional ability.” According to JAMB, these candidates’ performances will undergo further evaluation in the next three stages.