Trends in education law in Nigeria’s public educational institutions include data protection and privacy rights, digital rights, disclosures under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011, discrimination and sexual harassment, mental health, drug abuse, the proliferation of small arms, cultism, employment, contract management and documentations, land titling, intellectual property rights, and faculty and student exchange.
Nigeria’s education law practice is experiencing significant trends and changes in public educational institutions. Education lawyers at SRJ foresaw and have built a team of education lawyers that act as outsourced full-service legal departments for Nigerian educational institutions.
One of the most notable trends in Nigeria’s tertiary education law field is the increasing emphasis on regulatory compliance, ethics, and accountability in educational institutions.
Nigerian governments and tertiary educational institutions show commitment to social and professional ethics among employees and employees and students in public educational institutions.
Determined to purge the Nigerian university system (NUS) of sexual harassment, the ICPC recently arraigned Mr. Balogun Olaniran, a lecturer at Tai Solarin University of Education for offence concerning sexual harassment and monetary gratification from a female student.
Recall Premiums Times’ report on 1st April 2023 that Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), in 2018, sacked a lecturer, Richard Akindele, for demanding sexual relations with his student.
Regulatory Authorities
In recent years, the Nigerian government has ensured educational institutions comply with various regulations and guidelines. – Notwithstanding the striking ASUU (academic staff union of universities) that affect student’s rights.
This has included establishing regulatory bodies such as the National Universities Commission, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Council for Legal Education, and the National Board for Technical Education, that oversee the operations of public universities, colleges of education, medical colleges, and faculties of law and the Nigerian law school, and polytechnics respectively.
These regulators also emphasize quality assurance in educational institutions and implement accreditation processes for educational programs.
The NUC is implementing the new Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) policy that replaced the BMAS (Benchmark minimum academic standard) in Nigerian Universities.
Under the CCMAS, Nigerian universities are to propose a 30% contribution to the CCMAS to guarantee that the CCMAS reflects each university’s founding principles as oftentimes expressed in its moto.
Education law advisory and transaction opportunities abound for education lawyers versed in education law policies and curriculum to guide the university’s team through the CCMAS adaptation and implementation phases.
Staff and Students’ Rights
The upsurge in ethical compliance cannot be limited to sexual harassment. Data protection and privacy, safety and environment, education technology (e-tech or edutech) and regulatory technology, faculty and students exchange, insurance, and disclosures under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011 are significant trends in education law and for education lawyers.
Our education lawyers have exclusively advised Lagos Business School of Pan-Atlantic University as a full-serviced outsourced education legal department.
In conclusion, the current trends in education law in Nigeria are focused on ensuring regulatory compliance, improving quality assurance, safeguarding rights, and embracing technology in the delivery of education.
These trends are expected to continue to shape the landscape of education law in Nigeria’s public educational institutions in the years to come.
