ABSTRACT
In Nigeria's federal system, primary and secondary education are, for practical purposes, controlled by the four regional governments in their respective territories and by the national government in the capital city of Lagos. Strictly private schools are negligible in numbers and enrolments. Numerous grant-aided denominational schools, which are explicitly or implicitly regarded as public institutions, are focal in churchstate relations. Apart from a new programme for primary schools in the Northern Region, implemented only inchoatively, the basic legal and administrative pattern of aid and other relationships is uniform throughout the country; regional differences affect details. The appropriate Minister of Education may approve ' voluntary agencies'—i.e. churches and other corporate or real persons—to receive educational grants-in-aid and may assign grants to their schools, provided they fulfil specified conditions. The Northern Region's Education Law of 1962 provides for the establishment from time to time of new local education authorities.
