Nigeria’s growing push to introduce technology into teaching and learning could reshape how students access knowledge, but researchers say the country risks widening existing education inequalities if schools lack the infrastructure, connectivity and digital skills required to make the transition work.
The warning is contained in a 2024 study by Zarma Ali Wakil, Kamaluddeen Musa Yashi, Aminu Adamu Ahmed and Yusuf Musa, published in the Scientific Journal of Engineering and Technology, which examined how emerging information technology trends are changing teaching and learning in Nigeria.
The researchers identified artificial intelligence, mobile learning, educational applications, internet connectivity, gamification, cloud computing and virtual and augmented reality among the technologies with the potential to change how Nigerian students learn.
But their review also points to a fundamental challenge: putting technology into education is not the same as making education digital.
According to the researchers, inadequate equipment and infrastructure, limited internet access, weak digital literacy among teachers and students, resistance to changing traditional teaching methods, and concerns over data privacy and cybersecurity remain significant barriers to effective technology adoption.
The concern is particularly relevant as Nigeria seeks to expand digital learning opportunities across its education system.
In 2025, UNICEF said partnerships with Airtel Nigeria and IHS Towers had connected 200 additional schools to the internet, bringing the number of connected schools to 2,260. The organisation has also continued to promote the Nigeria Learning Passport, a digital platform that provides online and offline access to curriculum-aligned learning materials.
The developments underline both the opportunity and the scale of the challenge.
From chalkboards to AI
Wakil and his colleagues argue that technology can make learning more interactive by allowing teachers to use videos, animations, simulations and other multimedia resources to explain difficult concepts.
They also point to personalised learning as one of the major opportunities created by digital tools.
Instead of every student receiving exactly the same material at the same pace, adaptive learning platforms can analyse performance and provide additional exercises, feedback or learning resources based on individual needs.
Mobile technology could further extend learning beyond the classroom, particularly because smartphones and other relatively accessible devices can provide students with educational materials outside school hours.
The researchers also highlight virtual and augmented reality as emerging tools capable of allowing students to interact with simulated environments and visualise concepts that would otherwise be difficult to demonstrate in a conventional classroom.
Artificial intelligence could take that transformation further by supporting personalised instruction, intelligent tutoring and automated educational processes.
But access remains the dividing line.
Technology could widen the gap
UNICEF has warned that digital access and digital skills are closely connected, with children in poorer households more likely to remain disconnected. It said countries with low connectivity risk leaving a generation without opportunities to develop essential digital skills from an early age.
This means that simply introducing laptops, tablets or AI tools into selected schools may not necessarily produce a nationwide transformation.
The World Bank similarly cautions that while digital technologies offer significant opportunities to improve education, evidence of effectiveness remains uneven and the investments required to deploy digital solutions equitably can be substantial. It argues that countries need education technology strategies tailored to their own economic and social realities.
For Nigeria, the issue therefore goes beyond whether schools should embrace technology.
The bigger question is which schools have access to it, whether teachers know how to use it effectively, and whether students can benefit from it regardless of where they live or their family’s economic circumstances.
Teachers remain at the centre
The researchers argue that teacher development must accompany investment in digital infrastructure.
Without adequate training, technology can become an additional burden rather than an instructional tool. Teachers need continuing professional development that goes beyond learning how to operate devices and instead focuses on how technology can support lesson planning, assessment, collaboration, differentiated instruction and critical thinking.
This is increasingly important as AI and other emerging technologies enter education.
A 2026 study published in Frontiers in Computer Science noted that AI is rapidly transforming education but warned that it can also reproduce inequalities through issues including language limitations, cultural mismatches and algorithmic bias.
For Nigeria, that raises another question: if some teachers and students have access to sophisticated AI-powered learning tools while others struggle to get reliable internet access, will technology close the education gap—or create a new one?
The infrastructure question
The 2024 study by Wakil and his co-authors concludes that successful digital transformation requires more than technology procurement.
It calls for stronger internet connectivity, better infrastructure, continuous teacher training, improved digital literacy and stronger safeguards around privacy and cybersecurity.
Recent initiatives suggest that parts of this transition are already underway.
UNICEF said its Nigeria Learning Passport provides online, mobile and offline learning opportunities, while efforts are continuing to connect more schools and communities to the internet.
But the researchers’ central argument remains relevant: technology can only transform teaching when the education system is prepared to support it.
For Nigeria, the next phase of digital education may therefore not be about how quickly schools can acquire the newest technology.
It may be about whether the country can build an education system in which a child in a well-connected urban school and another in an underserved community can both use technology to learn, while teachers in both classrooms have the skills to turn that access into meaningful learning.
That, ultimately, will determine whether Nigeria’s digital education drive becomes a genuine transformation or simply another layer of inequality in the school system.
