This educational needs assessment is part of series of working documents aiming to support the
creation and implementation of urban development strategies in nine Millennium Cities in subSaharan
Africa. This study explores the educational situation in Kaduna, Nigeria, and examines
recent successes and the ensuing challenges in the education sector. The main objective of this
assessment is to evaluate Kaduna’s path to achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
#2 and #3 – achieving universal primary education and achieving gender parity at all levels of
education by 2015. This work was conducted by a Columbia University Teachers College
student contracted by the Earth Institute who subsequently traveled to Kaduna, Nigeria, in
May/June 2008, to collect data, conduct interviews and examine the current educational system.
The findings of this assessment show that education in Kaduna is moving in a positive direction,
although much remains to be accomplished before the education MDGs will be met successfully.
There is a particular need to improve early childhood care and development (ECCD) in the city,
as many children do not attend pre-primary institutions. At the primary and secondary school
levels, enrolments have increased dramatically in recent years due to the free and compulsory
education program. As a result, latrines, classrooms and staff rooms need to be built or
renovated, and more textbooks and teacher guides have to be provided. This requires financial
resources form the Federal Government, the State and the donor community.
Initiatives to improve the quality of education also need to be undertaken. Many teachers are not
qualified, and many students are not passing the various standardized exams. Teachers at all
levels need to at least complete the National Certificate of Education (NCE). Improved
qualifications will hopefully influence students’ performance on exams. The exit examinations
at the end of primary and junior secondary school are also preventing many students from
transitioning to higher levels of education. Girls perform significantly less well than boys on
these exams. Given that one of the education MDGs is explicitly concerned with gender parity,
interventions with the potential to improve girls’ performance on these examinations, such as
recruitment of qualified female teachers and provision of instructional materials to schools, are
very much needed.
Finally, better data management and maintenance will help Kaduna achieve the education
MDGs. Currently, private schools in Kaduna City enroll a large number of the students but the
Education Management Information System (EMIS) data only partially covers the private sector
in education. The data management system used to track students in private schools is currently
being updated, which will be extremely important to tracking the overall indicators of education
in the city. Islamic and other religious schools are also often lost in the statistical melee.
Including all educational providers in the State Ministry of Education (SmoE) data system will
be crucial to ensuring that all students have access to primary education.
This report is divided into four sections. The first provides a brief background description of
Kaduna City and the objectives of this study; the second includes an analysis of educational
indicators for each level, introduces successes and problems associated with the provision of
education and considers specific issues that need to be addressed. Section III presents
information on education costs and analyzes the status of educational finance in Kaduna.
Finally, recommendations for the future development of education in the city are provided.