The Kwara State Government has issued a sweeping ban on graduation, valedictory, and other end-of-session ceremonies in all public and private schools across the state, ordering immediate and total compliance from school administrators or face sanctions.
The prohibition was communicated in an official letter from the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, signed by Director Bunmi Osanupin on behalf of the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Lawal Olohungbebe.
The letter was addressed to Prof. Raheem Adaramaja, Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), the agency responsible for overseeing basic education across the state’s public primary and junior secondary schools.
Made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Friday, the letter leaves little room for interpretation. It states plainly that the decision was reached “in view of the prevailing security challenges and the need to maintain order, safety, and decorum within schools in the state,” language that frames the ban not as a routine policy adjustment but as a direct response to safety concerns rather than the cost-of-living pressures that have driven similar bans elsewhere in Nigeria.
The letter does not merely advise; it commands. “All school proprietors, principals, head teachers, and administrators are required to ensure strict compliance with this directive,” it reads, before warning that “any school found to be in violation of this directive shall be liable to appropriate sanctions in accordance with existing regulations.”
The ministry closed by instructing “all concerned” to be guided accordingly, bureaucratic phrasing that, in practice, leaves school heads across Kwara with no discretion on the matter as the academic session draws to a close.
The directive applies uniformly to public and private institutions alike, meaning elite private academies in Ilorin and rural community schools across the state’s sixteen local government areas are bound by the same rule.
The directive arrives at a time when parts of the state have grappled with periodic alarm over banditry and related criminal activity, with security agencies in recent days having had to respond to and, in at least one instance, publicly debunk reports of an attempted bandit attack in a Kwara community.
Also, Ogun State has directed all public and private schools to discontinue graduation ceremonies and end-of-session parties, citing financial pressure on parents and reports that some school administrators were using the events to extort money from families.
Kogi State has similarly restated a ban on excessive graduation ceremonies in nursery, primary, and junior secondary schools, warning that defaulting schools risk closure, while also reaffirming a prohibition on “sign-out” ceremonies for graduating undergraduates.
Comparable restrictions have been enforced in Benue, Ondo, Osun, and Imo States in recent months, though most of those interventions have been justified primarily on economic grounds rather than security.
Kwara had, in fact, faced public pressure to act even before Friday’s letter. Parents in the state had previously urged the government to follow the lead of other states, describing elaborate graduation ceremonies, particularly for pupils in nursery and lower primary classes, as an unnecessary show of extravagance that burdens already-stretched households.
Many institutions typically use the final weeks of the third term to plan valedictory services, end-of-session parties, and graduation events for pupils transitioning between class levels or leaving for secondary or tertiary education.
With the ban now in force, school administrators will need to either cancel such plans outright or restructure them into low-key, non-ceremonial activities that fall outside the directive’s scope, though the letter offers no explicit guidance on where that line sits.
Enforcement will likely rest with SUBEB at the basic education level, alongside the Ministry’s broader oversight of private schools, with the threat of unspecified “sanctions” serving as the government’s primary lever to ensure compliance before the term officially closes.
The Ministry has not indicated whether the ban is a one-off measure tied to the current security climate or a longer-term policy shift, and it remains to be seen how parents, many of whom view graduation ceremonies as a cherished rite of passage for their children, will respond to a season without them.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Kwara State Government has banned all graduation, valedictory, and end-of-session ceremonies in public and private schools, with violators facing sanctions.
Unlike similar bans in states like Ogun and Kogi, which target financial extortion of parents, Kwara’s ban is driven by security concerns, making it a safety measure first, not a cost-saving one.
