RESOURCES
Glossary of education terms
Fifty terms, abbreviations and pieces of shorthand used across the Kano education system, in plain language. Everything on this site that looks like jargon is defined here.
Why this page exists
Education administration runs on abbreviations. A parent asking a simple question at a school gate is told about the LGEA, the SBMC, the BECE and the QE, and leaves knowing less than when they arrived. This page defines every one of them, in the sense the Ministry actually uses, so that a circular, an inspection report or a form makes sense without an interpreter.
The entries are alphabetical and split across two tables at the letter M. Where a term has a legal definition, the definition here follows it; where a term is used loosely in conversation but precisely in an instrument, the precise sense is the one given. Board names are the legal names from the enabling instruments, not the informal ones.
A note on the board abbreviations
The eight boards and agencies are referred to throughout this site by their short codes: SUBEB, KSSMB, STSB, KSQISMB, PVIB, KSLB, AGMEd and EDTFB. The legal name of each is given in the glossary entry and on the board page.
Together with the Ministry itself they are known internally as the 8 + 1. Every school, learning centre and library in Kano State belongs to exactly one of them.
A to L
| Term | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| AGMEd | The Kano State Agency for Mass Education | The agency responsible for adult, non-formal and continuing education — basic literacy and numeracy, post-literacy and vocational classes, nomadic education and the out-of-school children programme. It issues the Adult Literacy Certificate. |
| Almajiri | Plural: almajirai | A child sent away from home to study the Qur'an under a Mallam, traditionally in a Tsangaya school. The State integration programme keeps the religious study intact and adds literacy, numeracy, a trade, feeding and health screening. |
| Approval (Provisional) | First-stage licence for a private school | The first approval granted to a new private, community or mission school once it has met the twelve statutory criteria on paper and at a site inspection. It permits the school to open and to enrol, and it is reviewed after the school has been operating. |
| Approval (Full) | Second-stage licence for a private school | Granted after a satisfactory inspection of a school already running under a provisional approval. Full approval runs for three years and must then be renewed on form MOE/APP/04. |
| Basic Education | Primary 1 to JSS 3 | The nine years of schooling that are free and compulsory under the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act 2004. It ends with the Basic Education Certificate Examination. |
| BECE | Basic Education Certificate Examination | The terminal examination of basic education, sat in JSS 3 in the second week of June. The entry fee is ₦3,500 and the State pays it in full for every candidate in a public school. |
| CA | Continuous Assessment | The 40 per cent of a pupil termly mark earned before the examination: two class tests, assignments and class work, and a project or practical. It must be recorded in the continuous assessment register as it is earned. |
| Capitation Grant | Per-pupil grant to a school | A grant paid to a public basic school for each enrolled pupil each session, between ₦2,000 and ₦5,000 a pupil, to be spent on running the school. Utilisation is returned on form MOE/CAP/01 and is audited. |
| Common Entrance | Common Entrance Examination | Sat at the end of Primary 6 in the third week of March. It places pupils into junior secondary schools and identifies candidates for the selective science and technical intake. |
| EDTFB | The Kano State Education Development Support Board | The board that administers the Education Development Trust Fund — one per cent of the State consolidated fund — together with the Special Public Primary Infrastructure programme and donor-financed capital works. The pool is split 60 per cent equipment, 40 per cent structures. |
| EMIS | Education Management Information System | The system that holds the school register, the census captures, enrolment and staff returns and examination data. Everything published in the statistics dashboards and the open datasets comes out of it. |
| Enrolment Return | Termly return by a school | The sex-disaggregated count of pupils on roll, filed by every head teacher within two weeks of resumption on form MOE/ENR/01. It drives the capitation grant, the textbook allocation and the teacher establishment. |
| GPI | Gender Parity Index | Girls enrolled divided by boys enrolled. A value of 1.00 is parity. Kano State stands at 0.90 for the 2025/2026 session, up from 0.68 a decade ago. |
| Head Teacher | The head of a primary school | The officer in charge of a primary or basic school, supported by an assistant head teacher. In a secondary school the equivalent officer is the principal, supported by a vice principal and senior masters and mistresses. |
| Inclusive Education | Educating learners with disabilities in mainstream schools | The policy that every school admits learners with disabilities and makes reasonable adjustments — ramps, accessible sanitation, assistive materials, itinerant specialist teachers — with specialist schools and units for needs a mainstream school cannot meet. |
| Integrated Islamiyya | Integrated Islamiyyah school | An Islamiyyah school teaching the full basic education curriculum alongside Arabic and Islamic studies, so its pupils sit the same examinations as pupils in any other school. Registered with KSQISMB. |
| JSS | Junior Secondary School | JSS 1 to JSS 3 — the upper three years of basic education, managed by SUBEB and ending in the Basic Education Certificate Examination and the Qualifying Examination. |
| KSLB | Kano State Library Board | The board responsible for every public library in the State: the Central Library at Kofar Nassarawa, zonal and branch libraries, mobile services, and the digitisation of the State manuscript collections. |
| KSQISMB | Kano State Qur'anic and Islamiyyah School Management Board | The board that registers and supports Tsangaya, integrated Islamiyyah and non-integrated Islamiyyah schools, runs the almajiri integration programme and issues the Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate. |
| KSSMB | Kano State Senior Secondary Schools Management Board | The board that manages every public senior secondary school in the State — principal and teacher posting, SS 1 placement, subject-combination approval and examination centre coordination. |
| LGEA | Local Government Education Authority | The education office in each of the forty-four local government areas, headed by an Education Secretary. It is the first place a parent, a head teacher or a teacher should go for almost anything. |
M to Z
| Term | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Mallam | A teacher, particularly of Qur'anic studies | The teacher who runs a Tsangaya school. Under the integration programme a registered Mallam receives a stipend, teaching support and materials rather than losing the school. |
| NCE | Nigeria Certificate in Education | The minimum teaching qualification in Nigeria, awarded by a college of education after three years. Serving teachers holding the older Grade II certificate are supported to upgrade to NCE and beyond. |
| NECO | National Examinations Council | The federal examining body whose Senior School Certificate Examination is written alongside WASSCE at the end of SS 3. The State pays the entry fee for every candidate in a public senior secondary school. |
| Non-Formal Education | Structured learning outside the school system | Literacy, numeracy and vocational classes for adults and out-of-school young people, delivered by the Agency for Mass Education in learning centres and community circles, in Hausa and English. |
| Out-of-School Children | Children of school age not enrolled anywhere | Enumerated ward by ward under the Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Policy 2019. Each child identified is offered a place, in a formal school, an integrated Islamiyyah school or a non-formal centre. |
| Placement Test | Test to fix the right class | Sat by a pupil transferring into a Kano school from another state or country, or returning after a period out of school. It is arranged within ten working days, covers three subjects and costs ₦1,000. |
| PTA | Parent–Teacher Association | The association of parents and staff at a school. A PTA levy is unlawful in a public basic school; in a public senior secondary school it is capped at ₦2,500 a term by the Approved Schools Fee Regulation. |
| PTR | Pupil–Teacher Ratio | Pupils on roll divided by teachers on establishment. The State average is 44:1 for the 2025/2026 session. The ratio drives teacher deployment between schools and between local government areas. |
| PVIB | Kano State Private And Voluntary Institute | The body that approves, licenses and quality-assures every fee-paying, community and mission school in the State, and publishes the register of approved private schools. |
| QISC | Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate | Certification of memorisation, recitation, Tajweed, Fiqh, Hadith and Arabic for learners in the State's Qur'anic and Islamiyyah schools, awarded by KSQISMB. Sat in the second week of May. |
| Qualifying Examination | The JSS 3 placement examination | Sat in the first week of July alongside the BECE. It decides whether a JSS 3 leaver goes to a public senior secondary school, a science secondary school or a technical college. |
| SBMC | School-Based Management Committee | The committee of parents, community members, staff and pupils that oversees a school with the head teacher — attendance, facility condition, the capitation grant and the school development plan. Its constitution is returned on form MOE/SBM/01. |
| School Census | Annual School Census | The once-a-session enumeration of every school in the State, taken in the sixth week of first term. Enumerators capture geo-coordinates, enrolment by sex, staff by sex, classrooms, facilities and a condition verdict. |
| School Code | The unique identifier of a school | Takes the pattern KN/LGA/CATEGORY/NNNN — for example KN/MUN/SSS/0142. It appears on the approval certificate, in the published register and on every return the school files. |
| Session | The academic year | Three terms running from September to July. The current session is 2025/2026, opening on 15 September 2025 and closing on 24 July 2026. |
| SS | Senior Secondary | SS 1 to SS 3 — the three years after basic education, in the science, arts, commercial or technical stream, ending in WASSCE and NECO. |
| STSB | Science and Technical Schools Board, Kano State | The board responsible for science secondary schools, government technical colleges and vocational centres, and for the Technical Trade Test series. |
| SUBEB | State Universal Basic Education Board | The board responsible for the whole of basic education in Kano State — Primary 1 to JSS 3 — across all forty-four local government areas. The largest of the eight boards by schools, pupils and staff. |
| Term | A third of the session | First term runs September to December, second term January to April, third term April to July. Each term has a mid-term break, a written examination period and a holiday at the end. |
| Transfer Certificate | The document that moves a pupil between schools | Issued by the releasing head teacher on form MOE/TC/02 showing the class reached and the last result. It is free, it must be issued within five working days, and it may never be withheld over money. |
| Transition Rate | Movement from one level to the next | The percentage of pupils completing JSS 3 who enter SS 1 in the following session. Kano State stands at 82.4 per cent for the 2025/2026 session. |
| TRCN | Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria | The professional regulator for teachers. Registration is a legal condition of teaching in any school in Nigeria, public or private. A Kano registration number takes the form TRCN/KN/NNNNNN and the licence is renewed every three years. |
| Tsangaya | Traditional Qur'anic school | A school under a Mallam devoted to Qur'anic memorisation and recitation, often boarding almajirai from outside the immediate area. Around 480 are registered with KSQISMB and enrolled in the integration programme. |
| UBE | Universal Basic Education | The national programme of free, compulsory basic education from Primary 1 to JSS 3, created by the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act 2004. |
| UBEC | Universal Basic Education Commission | The federal commission that funds basic education through matching grants. A state accesses its share only by paying its counterpart contribution and accounting for the previous tranche. |
| WAEC | West African Examinations Council | The regional examining body that runs WASSCE and whose nine grade bands, A1 to F9, are used for reporting scores across the State at every level. |
| WASSCE | West African Senior School Certificate Examination | Sat at the end of SS 3 from April to June. Five credits including English Language and Mathematics remain the entry standard for a Nigerian university. |
| Ward | The smallest administrative unit | The unit below the local government area. Every ward in Kano State has at least one public primary school, and out-of-school children are enumerated ward by ward. |
| Zonal Education Office | The layer between the board and the LGA | One of six offices — Kano Central, Kano North, Kano South, Gaya Zone, Rano Zone and Wudil Zone — through which SUBEB, KSSMB, PVIB, KSLB and the Agency for Mass Education supervise the local government education authorities and the schools. |
Terms people mix up
BECE or Qualifying Examination — what is the difference?
The Basic Education Certificate Examination certifies that a pupil has completed the nine years of basic education; it is a certificate. The Qualifying Examination decides where the pupil goes next; it is a placement. Both are sat at the end of JSS 3, a few weeks apart, and a JSS 3 candidate normally sits both.
Approval or registration?
A school is approved — a licence to operate, granted by the Private and Voluntary Institute or, for a Qur'anic or Islamiyyah school, registered by KSQISMB. A teacher is registered — with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria. A school is never registered with TRCN, and a teacher is never approved by PVIB.
LGEA or Zonal Education Office?
The Local Government Education Authority is the education office in one of the forty-four local government areas and is where a parent or a head teacher starts. A Zonal Education Office sits above several of them and covers one of the six zones. Escalate from the LGEA to the zone, not the other way round.
Tsangaya, Islamiyyah, integrated Islamiyyah?
A Tsangaya is a traditional Qur'anic school under a Mallam. An Islamiyyah school teaches Arabic and Islamic studies on a school timetable. An integrated Islamiyyah school does that and teaches the whole basic education curriculum as well, so its pupils sit the same examinations as everyone else. All three are registered with KSQISMB.
Head teacher or principal?
A head teacher heads a primary or basic school; a principal heads a secondary school. Their deputies are the assistant head teacher and the vice principal. An Education Secretary is not a school head at all — that officer runs a Local Government Education Authority.
Session or term?
A session is the whole academic year, September to July, written as 2025/2026. A term is one of the three parts of it. Fees and returns that are quoted "per session" are paid or filed once a year; those quoted "per term" three times.
A word here that still is not clear?
Tell the Ministry which one and it will be rewritten. The glossary exists so that nobody has to guess.