ERICC Policy brief _ Effective Policy Adaptation for Teacher Management in Crisis Contexts: Lessons learned from the formulation of the Adamawa State Teacher Recruitment, Retention and Deployment Bill to improve education outcomes in northeast Nigeria
Creators: name: ERICC Consortium
name: Akogun, Oladele
name: Diazgranados Ferrans, Silvia
name: Oliobi, Ifeatu
name: Njobdi, Sani
name: Chinda, Michael
name: Sa’ad, Abubakar
name: Oyinloye, Bukola
name: Ishola, Gbenga
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 390201
subject: Education policy

description: Nigeria is experiencing an acute educational crisis. An estimated 19.7 million children and youth are out of school, and those that are enrolled are not learning the required foundational skills. Teachers are a key element in addressing the learning crisis. However, there are severe shortages of competent, qualified teachers and high rates of teacher absenteeism across the country, driven in part by poor school infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate compensation, and limited opportunities for professional development and career progression. In northeast Nigeria, these systemic challenges are exacerbated by deliberate attacks by insurgents on local education provisions since the late 2000s. These have resulted in widespread school closures, and the killing, displacement and abduction of students and teachers.  Enhancing support for teachers is essential for strengthening education in northeast Nigeria. To improve the quality of teaching and learning, several states have introduced policy reforms to identify, recruit, deploy and retain qualified and competent teachers. However, given the complexity of the multi-level, decentralised education system in Nigeria, policymakers are increasingly turning from conventional top-down policies, towards locally grounded evidence from regional policy implementation that may be more applicable to state contexts. Using an example from Adamawa State, this brief describes a unique approach to adapting local policy for effective teacher management in crisis contexts. Adamawa is among the states most affected by the insurgency that has ravaged the educational and social infrastructure of northeast Nigeria since the early 2010s. In 2024, the state passed a bill aimed at reforming the recruitment, deployment and retention of teachers, drawing on a similar policy enacted in 2019 in Kaduna, a state in the northwest of the country. The process for developing the bill involved the generation and use of local evidence, and a contextually appropriate consultative process that engaged a diverse range of actors and interest groups in defining the policy problem and in formulating the chosen policy instrument. This approach to policy formulation is particularly novel in such contexts where the availability and use of scientific evidence in legislative action is limited and public involvement in the policymaking process is minimal. This brief outlines the findings of an Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) participatory research study which supported and assessed the policy formulation process in Adamawa State. The study draws on thematic analysis of data collected by Oxford Policy Management and the Common Heritage Foundation as a part of the ERICC consortium in 2024, through a review of existing policies and evidence of implementation effectiveness, and in-person workshops with key stakeholders. It contributes important evidence on promising strategies for adapting effective teacher management policies in northeast Nigeria and other crisis settings.