By Michael Bestman

Reports from this year alone show a significant rise in the number of applicants who registered for both WAEC and JAMB. According to official figures, over 1.9 million students—the highest ever recorded—will be sitting for WAEC’s first computer-based exams. Similarly, JAMB announced that over 2 million candidates registered for the 2025 UTME, also marking an all-time high. From this data, two critical questions arise: First, does this surge reflect a strong desire among young people to pursue education? Second, is the government committed to creating the necessary environment and access for this pursuit to achieved?

The answer to the first question is a resounding yes. However, the government’s scorecard remains dismal. In a country of over 200 million people—where youth constitute more than 70% of the population—UNICEF reports that approximately 10.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are not in school. At the primary level alone, the number of out-of-school children is estimated at 10.2 million; at the junior secondary level, that figure stands at 8.1 million.

For those who make it to tertiary institutions, the reality is even bleaker. Learning environments are barely improved. Hostels and classrooms are in appalling conditions, curricula remain outdated, and lecturers—largely unpaid or grossly underpaid—are forced to survive on handouts and the sale of textbooks.

Last year, the National Universities Commission (NUC) disclosed that universities across the country can only accommodate about 700,000 students due to serious infrastructural and capacity challenges. When juxtaposed with the millions registering for WAEC and JAMB annually, it becomes clear that the opportunity for every Nigerian child to access education at all levels is narrowing. The dream of acquiring an education is routinely crushed by anti-poor policies and government neglect.

The reasons are not hard to find. The government, in its pursuit of policies that benefit big business and prioritize profit, has shown a consistent disregard for the state of public education. As a result, the promise of free, quality education is increasingly eroded. This attitude has been carried forward from administration to administration—and the Tinubu regime is no different. Since assuming power, it has made no effort to introduce fundamental improvements in the sector. The education budget has consistently declined. For 2025, the allocation stands at a meagre 7%, a figure far below the UNESCO-recommended benchmark of 15–20%.

Even more painful is the so-called student loan scheme introduced under Tinubu. Instead of alleviating the financial burden on students, the policy has been used as a smokescreen to justify fee hikes of over 300% in many public universities. Working-class students now face increased attacks from both university administrations and the government. At institutions like UNIBEN, students have been threatened with denial of access to exams if they fail to pay these inflated fees.

University authorities, under the guise of the loan scheme, have become increasingly insensitive to the hardships faced by students and their families. In many schools, student unionism has been banned—mirroring the authoritarian character of the Tinubu regime, which also cracked down on peaceful protesters in August last year.

Tinubu’s 2023 proposal for a mixed model of public and private university financing further confirms his administration’s intention to push education further out of reach for the poor. This strategy of chronic underfunding and creeping privatization is a direct attack on the right to free, public education.

This reckless approach, combined with the regime’s failure to meet the basic demands of working people, has plunged millions into deeper poverty. Rising insecurity, skyrocketing costs of living, illiteracy, despair, and economic hardship are all consequences of a failed system.

In response to the second question, the answer is clear: the Tinubu regime has failed woefully in its responsibility to provide education for all. From a Marxist perspective, this failure is not accidental—it is a symptom of the broader crisis inherent in a capitalist system designed to serve the tiny numbers of the elite. Since its inception, the Tinubu administration has inflicted more hardship on the masses. Hikes in electricity tariffs, tax levies, fuel subsidy removal, and soaring prices of basic commodities all point to the horrors of capitalism.

Students, youth, and the working class must reject empty promises. The Tinubu regime, with its continued anti-people policies, offers neither a better life nor renewed hope. Instead, the working class must draw lessons from history and build on its past struggles. Students must understand that the crisis in the education sector is only a reflection of the deeper rot within capitalism.

Capitalism, at its core, is a system in which the means of production—factories, land, machines—are owned and controlled by a tiny one percent. This elite class deprives the working majority of the full benefits of their labour.

Now more than ever, the banner of socialism must be raised high. There is no clearer alternative than for workers and students to unite and organize against both the anti-poor policies of the Tinubu administration and the structural decay of the capitalist system.