Education is a human right that all nations should provide to their citizens. The importance of education to any nation cannot be overemphasised. It is in recognition of this importance that the international community and governments worldwide have made commitments for citizens to have access to education.

In 1976, Nigeria committed itself to Universal Primary Education (UPE). This move was a means of working toward the equalisation of educational opportunities by providing a minimum level to which all children would be educated. Even though UPE was a success in that millions of Nigerian children were able to receive primary education, twenty years later UPE faced many problems.

To ensure that all citizens are literate, Nigeria's Federal Government introduced the Universal Basic Education (UBE) program on September 30, 1999.
The aims and objectives of the UBE include: To develop in the entire citizenry a strong consciousness for education and a strong commitment to its vigorous promotion; providing free compulsory Universal Basic Education for every Nigerian child of school-going-age; drastically reducing the dropout rate from the formal school system through improved relevance and efficiency.

Furthermore, in recent times the culture of globalisation has led to a redefinition of education goals and priorities. As a result, many countries are signatories to some global reforms. Two such goals are the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Education For All (EFA) Goals. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted in September 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which devoted two of its eight goals to education.

Nigeria has expressed a commitment to some of these instruments in education with the strong belief that overcoming illiteracy and ignorance will form a basis for accelerated national development. Over the past decade, Nigeria has made significant progress toward achieving these goals through its National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).

In September 2006, Nigeria officially began implementing a nine-year basic education program (an integration of primary and junior secondary schools). This program was supposed to ensure that students stay in school for nine years and will be driven by the adoption of new curricula materials. The nine-year curriculum was initially introduced into six-year primary schools in 2006 and three-year junior secondary schools in 2007. By 2015, the nine-year curriculum was fully implemented throughout the school system in Nigeria.
The nine-year basic education curriculum aims to ensure that every learner who has gone through nine years of basic education should have acquired appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative skills, communicative and life skills as well as the ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning. The curriculum focuses strategic basic content for the achievement of the country's reform initiatives in value orientation, poverty eradication, wealth generation, and job creation.