What are the least educated states in Nigeria? Education is the process of imparting knowledge to others and also receiving knowledge through schooling or instructions.

Millions of Nigerians are getting educated in this 21st-Century as education is becoming cheap and the involvement of technology made it possible and easy, however, over 30% of Nigerians are still illiterates. 

The Nigerian education system is characterized by a high level of illiteracy and is divided into Kindergarten, Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary education.

Tertiary education consists of Colleges of education, Monotechnics, Polytechnics, and Universities (both private and public (state and federal)).

A quarter of Nigeria’s over 40 million school-age students are not attending primary education, much less growing up to be literate.

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This might be due to the minimum number of schools in their state or their parents’ indifference to education which is being imparted in the children. This report showed that for every 4 Nigeria school-age children, 1 is not getting an education, which might be due to inaccessible sources of primary education.

Boys made up 62 percent of the over 40 million school-age children who are not getting educated while girls make up the remaining 38 percent.

Ranking below are the top 10 least educated states in Nigeria in descending order;

Top 10 Least Educated States In Nigeria

1. Kano State

Kano state is situated in the northern region of the country with Alhaji Umar Ganduje as its sitting governor. The poor state of education in the northern state is alarming. Kano state, which is the largest populated state in Nigeria, stands tall at the top of the list of least educated states in Nigeria with almost 1 million children out of school.

Even the few of those that attend schools failed to attend the pre-primary school section, which would have exposed them to mental reasoning and made them perform better in class. Learning is very difficult for the students.

Efforts to ensure and maintain quality education by the government making significant differences by increasing access to education for school-age children who would have been denied access to education are faced with serious challenges which include mainly inadequate funding which will ensure the provision of standard teaching and learning facilities, insufficient well-trained and competent teachers, and quality indicators like teachers-pupil ratio, students’ academic achievements, and the likes of them are stagnated or dropped.

Insecurity further affects the quality of education in Kano State as it is bordering around the region of states of insurgency.

2. Akwa-Ibom

Akwa-Ibom with Mr Udom Gabriel Emmanuel as the current government made the second on the list with over 500,000 school-age children out of school. The state governor declared an emergency on the education system a few months back to address infrastructural deficits in public schools given the decay in the education sector in the state.

The state government even flag off the distribution of educational material to public schools earlier this month. Hopefully, these moves by the governor coupled with the free and compulsory education made by the government some years back will improve the quality of education in the state.

3. Katsina State

Having Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari as its current governor made the 3rd on the list. Katsina is in the northern region of the nation and followed closely behind Akwa-Ibom state by having over 500,000 out-of-school children with only an insignificant difference between them.

As a result of this, a program, Better Education Service Delivery for All which has been in existence since 2019 was launched at the beginning half of the year where the educational challenges were highlighted and the measures proposed to tackle some of these challenges are stated.

4. Kaduna State

With Alhaji Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai as its sitting governor, Kaduna state made it to the list following very closely behind Katsina State with over 500,000 out-of-school children also. With the crisis generated by the teachers’ competency test a few years back, it is no surprise that Kaduna is part of the least educated states adding to the fact that it is also a northern state.

With this, the state recognizes that increasing access and quality of education starts with teachers’ performance, enrolment, and tackling infrastructure challenges which led to the proposal and implementation of the Kaduna State Education Policy.

5. Taraba State

Having Mr. Darius Dickson Ishaku as its current governor, Taraba state made it to the list with almost 500,000 school-age children out of school. Inadequate teachers, insufficient funding, poor learning environment, and infrastructure are a few of the major challenges faced in the education sector in the state. To tackle the issue of enrolment, the government once proposed a school-feeding project to lure children to school thereby increasing enrolment and retention of pupils in school.

Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP) also implemented a project titled Access of Girl-Child to Quality Education which is aimed at increasing the access of girl-child to education in some local governments within the state.

6. Sokoto State

Sokoto state has over 400,000 school-age children lacking education under the reign of Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as the sitting governor. Sokoto is also within the northern region of Nigeria and its government committed that it aims at raising the standard of education by implementing policies, construction & renovation, and equipment of schools. Through the Educate-A-Child (EAC) project, some teachers undergo training that helps them in delivering lessons with improved knowledge.

7. Yobe State

Yobe state also in the northern region with Alhaji Mai Mala Buni has its current governor followed Sokoto state closely with an insignificant difference in the number of out-of-school children. Efforts were being made to improve the standard of education before the emergence of the insurgency in the state which lowered the quality of education and cause further retardation in the educational system.

8. Zamfara State

Zamfara state also within the northern region with Alhaji Bello Muhammed Matawalle as its present governor also followed Yobe state closely with an insignificant difference. The Zamfara state government has also put in place various strategies to tackle the challenges faced by education within the state.

9. Bauchi State

With Governor Bala Muhammed currently in government, Bauchi state has almost 400,000 out-of-school children. The government aim at enhancing the capacity of teachers to ensure the provision of quality education to students.

10. Cross River State

With Mr. Benedict Ayade as its current governor, Cross River state ranked 10th on the list having almost 100,000 out-of-school children which is a significant difference compared to the amount in other states. Governor Ayade tackles the educational challenges by implementing a Teachers Continuous Training Institute which is a big move.

Concluding based on the results above, Northern states have a major educational problem.