The Federal Ministry of Education started running a new school curriculum from the 2025/2026 session, cutting the number of subjects students take at every level from primary to senior secondary. That is just one out of a long list of changes hitting Nigeria’s education system this year. JAMB has a new boss for the first time in ten years, WAEC and NECO exams now run on computers, and government just added a compulsory drug test before students can even enter secondary school. Some of these changes hit students directly. Others hit parents, and a couple matter if you’re planning to apply for a scholarship or loan soon. Here is what changed, one by one.
New curriculum with fewer subjects started this school session
Every student in Nigeria’s secondary schools is now under a new curriculum, and it kicked off from the 2025/2026 academic session. Government cut down how many subjects each level carries, something schools and parents had been complaining about for years.
The subject count now looks like this, level by level:
- Primary 1 to 3: 9 to 10 subjects
- Primary 4 to 6: 11 to 13 subjects
- Junior Secondary School (JSS 1 to 3): 12 to 14 subjects
- Senior Secondary Schools (SS 1 to 3): 8 to 9 subjects
- Technical colleges: 9 to 11 subjects
For senior secondary, five subjects are now compulsory for everyone, no matter your class of study: English Language, General Mathematics, Digital Technologies, Citizenship and Heritage Studies, and one trade subject. Citizenship and Heritage Studies is a brand new subject. It merged three old ones, Nigerian History, Civic Education, and Social Studies, into one. Nigerian History itself came back as compulsory from Primary 1 all the way to JSS 3, after years of not being taught on its own.
The trade subject part is where it gets interesting. Every SS student now has to pick one, and it stays compulsory right through SS3. For students in regular, non-technical schools, the choices have been trimmed down to six: Solar PV Installation and Maintenance, Fashion Design and Garment Making, Livestock Farming, Beauty and Cosmetology, Computer Hardware and GSM Repairs, and Horticulture and Crop Production. Students in technical colleges get a wider pool, 28 revamped trade subjects under NABTEB.
This is a good curriculum modification, because even when i did my Primary and Secondary School, I suffer a little due to too many subjects that someone will not even later use.
The rollout is not happening everywhere at once. It started with Primary 1, Primary 4, JSS 1, and SS 1, and it moves up a class every year until the whole system is covered. So if your child is in SS2 or SS3 right now, no need to panic sha, the old curriculum still applies to that set until they finish.
A bigger change is still coming: 12 years of unbroken basic education
This one is not law yet, but it is worth knowing about early. In July 2026, the Minister of Education inaugurated a committee to work toward a compulsory 12-year uninterrupted basic education model. Government wants to remove the current break between Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary School, so a child moves through all 12 years without the system splitting them into JSS and SSS the way it does now. That would shift Nigeria’s 6-3-3-4 structure closer to something like 12-4.
Nothing changes for students today. The committee is still working, and any real change would need approval from the National Council on Education before it affects a single classroom. But if you have a child still in primary or JSS, this is one to keep an eye on over the next school year or two.
WAEC and NECO exams are now run on computers
WASSCE stopped being a pure paper-and-pen exam this year. Government had earlier ordered WAEC and NECO to move fully to Computer-Based Testing by 2026, and it actually happened. Objective papers went CBT from November 2025. By the May/June 2026 WASSCE, even the essay papers were done on computer, at approved CBT centres instead of inside school halls.
The 2026 WASSCE for school candidates ran from 24 April to 19 June, and it was the second time WAEC conducted the exam this way. Some numbers from that sitting:
- 1,950,726 candidates sat for it
- 61.54% got credits in five subjects, including English and Maths, way up from 38.32% the year before
- 167,486 results were withheld over suspected exam malpractice
- 94.05% of all results were fully processed and released
WAEC credits the jump in performance and the faster processing to its new system, a Digital Examiner Mark System plus serialised question papers meant to make cheating harder. One more thing worth knowing: if your state government owes WAEC unpaid fees, your result stays back until the state clears the debt. WAEC hasn’t named which states owe, so if your result seems stuck for no clear reason, it might not even be your fault.
JAMB has a new registrar for the first time in ten years
Professor Is-haq Oloyede left as JAMB’s Registrar on 31 July 2026 after ten years running the board, and Professor Segun Aina took over that same day. Oloyede’s second and final five-year term simply ran out. President Tinubu had already picked Aina back in May.
Aina is a Professor of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, and he becomes the youngest Registrar JAMB has ever had. He has spent over 15 years advising government bodies on digital systems and reforms, which lines up with where JAMB seems to be headed: more technology, tighter systems, fewer manual processes.
Not much has changed for UTME candidates yet since Aina just resumed office. But it’s worth knowing who is now in charge of your results and admission process, especially with 2026 UTME numbers at a record high: over 2.2 million candidates registered. The cutoff mark for 2026 stayed at 150 for universities and Colleges of Nursing Sciences, 100 for polytechnics, and the minimum admission age is still 16.
NELFUND is paying out more money to more students
The student loan scheme keeps growing: as of 3 July 2026, NELFUND had disbursed a total of N303.91 billion to about 1.64 million students, up from N282.20 billion just two months earlier. Out of that total, N190.06 billion went straight to schools as institutional fees, and N113.85 billion went to students as upkeep allowance.
NELFUND also cleared a backlog of June and July upkeep payments in August, paying beneficiaries N40,000 to cover both months at once. And the fund’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, says NELFUND is now working toward paying out approved loans within 45 days, timed to match each school’s academic calendar.
One thing to clear up: a rumour went round early in the year claiming the monthly upkeep allowance had jumped to N150,000. That is false. The upkeep allowance is still N20,000 a month. The NELFUND Beneficiaries Association and NELFUND’s own channels have both debunked it. Don’t fall for any message or post claiming otherwise, and always confirm anything about your loan on the official NELFUND portal, never through a third party.
Government now requires drug tests before you can enter secondary school
In May 2026, the Federal Ministry of Education released the National Implementation Guidelines Against Drug and Substance Use in Schools, and it introduced something schools have never had before: compulsory drug integrity tests.
Here is how it works. Every student newly admitted into a secondary school has to take a drug test at the point of entry, before admission is finalised. Existing students get tested at least once every academic session, and schools can also carry out surprise tests whenever they suspect something. The policy covers tertiary institutions too, not just secondary schools.
A student who tests positive does not get expelled immediately. The guidelines set up a three-stage process: counselling first, then treatment or rehabilitation. Only if a student keeps testing positive after that do they risk temporary suspension. Parents also now have to declare any controlled medication their child is on, during admission or resumption, so it doesn’t get mistaken for drug use.
Government says the policy isn’t just about punishment. It’s meant to catch problems early and get students help before things get worse, and it ties into a bigger security push, since officials have linked rising drug abuse among young people to some of the security problems Nigeria is dealing with.
A new system now tracks student data across the whole country
On 1 July 2026, government launched the Digital National Education Information Management System, DNEMIS for short. It’s basically a national database meant to hold reliable, up to date information on students, schools, and enrollment figures, the kind of data government has struggled to get right for years.
By the time it launched, more than 32 million students had already been enrolled on the platform. DNEMIS forms the backbone of something called the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure, which itself sits under a bigger plan, the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative. In plain terms, government now wants to know, in real time, how many students are actually in school and what subjects they’re studying, instead of relying on old estimates.
Money for education is still far below what experts recommend
President Tinubu’s 2026 budget set aside N3.52 trillion for education. That sounds like a lot until you see it as a percentage. It’s just 6.1% of the total N58.18 trillion national budget.
UNESCO recommends that countries put 15 to 20% of their national budget into education. Nigeria’s 6.1% isn’t close to that, and it’s easy to see why people keep worrying that all the reforms above could stall over funding. New curriculum, computer-based exams, drug testing, a national data system, none of it runs on goodwill. It all needs money for training, equipment, and infrastructure.
On a brighter note, TETFund kicked off its 2026 intervention cycle in January, focused on funding infrastructure, research, and capacity building across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. So funding isn’t standing completely still. It’s just moving slower than the reforms it’s supposed to support.
