Drivers of (in)coherence in the delivery of education in Northeast Nigeria

The education system in Northeast Nigeria has faced severe disruptions as a result of persistent clashes between multiple militia groups and government security forces since the late 2000s. The protracted conflict has led to displacement of teachers and students and widespread school closures, as well as physical and psychological harm to children.

While much of the policy discourse focuses on rebuilding and securing school infrastructure in the northeast, this paper takes a deeper look into how relationships and dynamics among key actors in the education sector are affecting the coherence of the system, a crucial factor in enhancing quality of education.

Specifically, the paper explores horizontal and vertical alignment within the education system in areas such as financing, curriculum, teacher training and measures of learning outcomes. The study brings attention to several critical issues: low normative commitment to education among humanitarian and federal-level government actors; suboptimal coordination between humanitarian and state-level government actors; ambiguous distribution of responsibilities within the government’s education sector; challenges in teacher recruitment and training; and gaps in data utilisation.

Furthermore, this paper contributes theoretically to the field of Education in Emergencies (EiE) by linking the concepts of ‘coherence for learning’ (Pritchett, 2015) with those of ‘humanitarian–development coherence’ (OECD, 2017; INEE, 2021). By doing so, it enhances our understanding of education systems in protracted crisis settings, anticipating further refinements and application of the framework developed here in future research.