Child Rights, Education Law, and the Right to Basic Education in Nigeria: Implementation Challenges and Reform Pathways

This study provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the right to basic education in Nigeria, examining the legal architecture, implementation challenges, and reform pathways from educational foundations, constitutional law, and human rights perspectives. The right to basic education is enshrined in Nigeria's Constitution under the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles, the Child Rights Act of 2003, and the Compulsory, Free, Universal Basic Education Act of 2004. Yet the justiciability of this right and the conditions for its effective implementation remain contested and inadequately analysed. This study employs an interdisciplinary legal-educational research design, combining constitutional and statutory analysis of Nigeria's education rights legal framework with comparative analysis of education rights jurisprudence from South Africa, India, and Kenya. Empirical data on UBE implementation gaps are drawn from the National Population Commission, UNICEF MICS surveys, and UBEC administrative records for 2015 to 2023. Interviews with 30 education lawyers, constitutional scholars, and education policy advocates supplement the doctrinal analysis. Results reveal a significant implementation gap between the legal right to basic education and its practical realisation, particularly for children in northern states, conflict zones, and urban slum communities. The non-justiciability of the right under Nigeria's constitutional framework is identified as a foundational barrier to rights enforcement. The study contributes an original Education Rights Implementation Framework for Nigeria and recommends a constitutional amendment to make the right to basic education fully justiciable, alongside an Education Rights Litigation Fund to enable public interest enforcement.

Keywords: right to education, child rights, education law, basic education, Nigeria.