Frequently asked questions

Yes. From Primary 1 to JSS 3 in a public school there is no tuition, no development levy, no examination charge, no PTA levy and no uniform charge. The State also pays the BECE entry fee for every candidate in a public school and supplies textbooks and exercise books. Free means free: any demand for money is unlawful and should be reported.

Tuition remains free. The Approved Schools Fee Regulation permits a PTA levy of ₦2,500 a term, a laboratory and workshop charge of ₦3,000 a term, a sports and library charge of ₦1,500 a term and a uniform and games kit at ₦9,500 a session. A boarder pays boarding and feeding of ₦42,000 a term; a day student does not. Nothing outside that schedule may lawfully be charged.

The entry fee for the Basic Education Certificate Examination is ₦3,500 and the State pays it in full for every candidate in a public school. A candidate in an approved private school pays it through the school, which remits it with the entry schedule on form MOE/EXM/02. The State also pays WASSCE and NECO entry in full for candidates in public senior secondary schools.

Free uniform and exercise-book distribution runs in the first fortnight of first term in every public basic school, and core textbooks are supplied to the school for classroom use. A parent who does not receive the issue should ask the head teacher, and then the Education Secretary for the local government area. Distribution is recorded school by school and the record is auditable.

No teacher may charge a pupil of their own school for lessons in a subject they teach, and no pupil may be disadvantaged for not attending an extra class. Where a school runs a formal remedial or examination-preparation programme, it must be approved by the Education Secretary, be open to every pupil and be free in a public basic school. Report a demand on 0800 MOE KANO.

Fees in approved private schools are set by the proprietor and filed with the Private and Voluntary Institute before the session. A mid-range approved school in the Kano metropolis charges in the region of ₦68,000 a term in tuition, with books, uniform and transport on top. Ask any school for its filed fee schedule before you enrol; it is a public document and the school must show it.

Ask the current head teacher for a transfer certificate on form MOE/TC/01. The school issues the certificate on form MOE/TC/02 showing the class reached, the last result and any outstanding matter, and you present it at the receiving school. Within Kano State the process should take no more than five working days and it is free.

A school may not withhold a transfer certificate, a result slip or a pupil record over money, a dispute or a grievance. Put the request in writing, keep a copy, and take it to the Education Secretary for the local government area if the school does not act within five working days. The Education Secretary can direct the release and, in a public school, can issue the certificate directly.

Apply for a certified statement of result on form MOE/RES/02 at the Ministry Examinations Unit or at the Local Government Education Authority office. Bring identification, the examination number if you have it, the name of the school and the year sat. Where the examination number is lost the Unit can search by name, school and year, which takes longer.

A State-issued certificate can be replaced on form MOE/CER/01 with a sworn declaration of loss and a police report where the loss involved theft. A WAEC or NECO certificate is replaced by the examining body, not by the State, but the Examinations Unit will issue a certified statement of result to support that application.

A pupil record is retained for the whole of the school career and for twenty-five years after the pupil leaves. Examination entries and results are retained permanently, because they are the basis of every certified statement of result the Ministry will ever issue. Census, enrolment and staff establishment returns are also retained permanently.

The school, the Local Government Education Authority, the responsible board and the Ministry, for the purposes of running the school and the system. Nothing that identifies an individual pupil is published: the open datasets and the statistics dashboards carry counts by school, by sex and by local government area, never a name, an address or a date of birth.

Ask to see the approval certificate, which shows the school name, the approval number, the levels approved and the expiry date, and check the school in the published register at /schools/directory. An approval runs for three years and must then be renewed. A school operating without a current approval is operating unlawfully and the Ministry can close it.

Apply to the Private and Voluntary Institute on form MOE/APP/01 with the site documents, the building plan, the staff list with TRCN numbers, the proposed fee schedule and the proprietor particulars. The Institute inspects against twelve statutory criteria and grants a provisional approval first; full approval follows a satisfactory inspection after the school has been running. The full route is set out at /services/school-approval.

Three years. Renewal is applied for on form MOE/APP/04 in the third year, and a renewal inspection is carried out before the current approval expires. A school that lets an approval lapse must stop enrolling new pupils until it is renewed, and pupils already enrolled are protected — the Ministry will not disrupt a child school year to punish a proprietor.

Yes. Every approved school teaches the Nigerian curriculum with the core periods intact, uses approved textbooks and enters its candidates for the national examinations. A school may add an additional language, an extra religious subject or an international syllabus alongside it with the approval of the Institute, provided nothing in the core is reduced.

A Tsangaya is a traditional Qur'anic school under a Mallam, focused on memorisation and recitation. An integrated Islamiyyah school teaches the full basic education curriculum — English, Mathematics, Basic Science and the rest — alongside Arabic and Islamic studies, so its pupils sit the same examinations as any other pupil. Both are registered with the Qur'anic and Islamiyyah School Management Board.

An enrolled Tsangaya learner keeps their Qur'anic study and their Mallam, and gains literacy and numeracy classes, a trade, one hot meal a school day, health screening and a route into the formal system through the placement test. The Mallam receives a stipend and teaching support rather than losing the school. The programme is described in full at /programmes/almajiri-integration.