Beyond Government: How Society Sustains Education in Nigeria
By Sunkanmi Ajewole
Society plays a central role in Nigeria’s education system. It acts not only as a support structure but also as a driving force behind who learns, what is taught and whether learning actually happens. Families, community leaders, religion associations, PTAs, local businesses and NGOs do more than support schools, they actively shape educational outcomes. Strengthening these social actors alongside public investment is one of the fastest ways to turn school attendance into real learning.
Nigeria’s schools exist within communities and those communities provide much of what formal systems cannot. According to UNICEF, more than half of Nigerian children aged 0 to 17yrs live in multidimensional poverty (UNICEF, 2022). This means that they face overlapping deprivations in areas such as education, health and living standards. This has direct implications for schooling as children from such backgrounds are more likely to struggle with attendance, concentration and access to learning materials. In this context, parental support, community feeding programmes and religion-based scholarships are not just complementary efforts but essential interventions that help sustain participation in education. Families often provide early learning at home, cover uniforms and transportation and even pay informal levies that influence whether a child remains in school.
This reality can be better understood through Social Capital Theory, particularly as advanced by James Coleman, who argued that social relationships and networks play a critical role in shaping educational outcomes. He emphasized that when parents, schools and communities are closely connected, they create a system of shared expectations, trust and support that enhances student learning. In the Nigerian context, these networks are especially important because they often compensate for gaps in formal educational provision. Community involvement, parental engagement and local support systems therefore act as forms of social capital that directly influence students’ academic success.
However, being in school does not always translate to learning. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, only about 44% of Nigerian students achieve minimum proficiency in mathematics by the end of primary school (NBS, 2022). This statistic suggests that more than half of Nigerian students are unable to meet expected learning standards, pointing to a significant gap between access and quality. As a result, community-led interventions such as after-school lessons, local tutoring volunteers and remedial programmes have become increasingly important. These initiatives help reinforce classroom learning and provide additional academic support, especially in under-resourced schools where teacher capacity and instructional time may be limited.
If society is already doing so much to sustain education, the critical question becomes what happens when this support is uneven and how can it be structured to ensure equity and long-term impact?
