Lagos Delivered 1,416 Classrooms in 2025, But 60 Students Still Share One Class – Athena Report

Despite delivering 1,416 new classrooms in 2025, Lagos public schools are still contending with severe overcrowding, with an average of 60 students sharing one classroom, according to a new report.

The report, _“Nigeria’s Education Capacity Crisis: Closing the Gap Between Enrolment Growth and System Capacity”_, was released on Wednesday, August 6, 2026 in Abuja by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership.

Authored by Prof. Temitayo Shenkoya and Anita Olatunde, the report said Nigeria’s education problem has shifted from access to system capacity.

According to the report, 40.1 million pupils and students were enrolled in public basic and secondary schools during the 2024/2025 academic session across 107,042 schools nationwide. It added that about 66 students share one toilet on average, while the country spent only 0.3 per cent of its GDP on public education in 2025.

“Nigeria’s education challenge is no longer defined solely by access; it is increasingly one of system capacity,” the report stated.

The Lagos State Ministry of Education, in its 2025 scorecard, said it carried out aggressive renewal efforts to address the pressure.

The state said it rehabilitated 47 schools, bringing the total number of upgraded facilities to 433. It also supplied 223,343 furniture units and employed 2,768 new teachers to improve student-teacher ratios.

The government highlighted the revitalisation of the Tolu School Complex in Ajegunle as a flagship project. The Office of Education Quality Assurance said the state was building new schools in overpopulated areas to “depopulate” existing ones.

However, gaps remain. A ₦74.5 million classroom project at Pobuna Secondary Grammar School in Epe was reportedly abandoned after funds were released in June 2024, leaving students in congested classes.

An SBM Intelligence survey also ranked Lagos at 2.92 out of 5 on affordable school quality, noting that most families cannot access good schools despite the presence of elite private institutions.

The Commissioner for Education further acknowledged a decline in WAEC and NECO performance, even after the state paid N1.58 billion to register 58,188 students for the exams last year.

The Athena Centre said the system is constrained less by enrolment than by weak governance, fragmented planning, and inadequate teacher deployment.

It recommended stronger governance, evidence-based planning, and full deployment of the Digital Nigeria Education Management Information System, DNEMIS, to track performance.

The Centre also called for sustained multi-year investment in classrooms, teachers and digital infrastructure, annual scorecards on infrastructure and learning outcomes, and stronger coordination between the Federal Ministry of Education, SUBEBs, TESCOMs and LGEAs.

Drawing lessons from Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, the authors said countries that achieved better outcomes did so by building institutions capable of continuous planning and accountability.

The report concluded that fixing the capacity deficit is critical not just for education, but for Nigeria’s economic growth and global competitiveness.