Tackling the Largest Global Education Challenge? Secular and Religious Education in Northern Nigeria

With more than 10 million children out of school, Nigeria is the country furthest away from universal primary education. A tradition of religious education in northern Nigeria has been seen as an opportunity for expanding access to secular education. This paper demonstrates two constraining factors. First, unobserved household characteristics favoring religious education attendance are negatively correlated with secular school attendance. Second, the poor quality of secular education acts as a disincentive to secular school attendance. The findings cast doubts at policies aimed at increasing secular school enrollment through the integration of religious and secular school curricula.