The news from Ekiti State is clear: beginning from the 2025/2026 academic session, elaborate graduation ceremonies for pupils in kindergarten, nursery, primary, and even secondary schools will be outlawed. In announcing the ban on Friday, the government argued that the policy is designed to ease the financial pressure on parents, curb excesses associated with the ceremonies, and encourage sustainability in education through measures such as a revised textbook reuse system.

With this move, Ekiti now joins Osun, Oyo, Ogun, and Ondo in outlawing the practice. From the outside, the decision might look abrupt, but when one listens to the arguments coming from policymakers across these states, the reasoning is strikingly similar: these ceremonies have lost their educational value, evolved into flamboyant social carnivals, and become vehicles of financial exploitation.

The South-West Consensus

In Osun, the Ministry of Education bluntly declared that school graduations have “lost their essence,” morphing into mere parties where learning takes the back seat. Oyo’s Commissioner for Education emphasized the need to “shield parents from unnecessary financial burdens” pointing to how graduation costs, often running into tens of thousands of naira, have become exploitative.

Ogun went a step further, stressing that children at lower levels of education do not need ceremonial send-offs. For them, education is meant to be continuous and holistic, not interrupted by confetti and costumes. In Ondo, safety concerns also came into play. Some graduation parties, the government noted, had become breeding grounds for unruly behavior, while excursions organized without approval raised red flags in a country battling insecurity.

To complement this cultural shift, some states have also banned the compulsory yearly purchase of new textbooks, noting that siblings can reuse the same books across academic cycles. The combined message is unambiguous: the age of lavish graduation ceremonies at the nursery and primary school levels is over, at least across much of the South-West.

Yet, in the middle of this wave of reform, one state has remained conspicuously silent: Lagos State Government.

As the commercial and educational hub of Nigeria, Lagos is home to tens of thousands of schools from prestigious international academies to low-cost neighborhood schools. Parents here are no strangers to the pressure of graduations. Graduation gowns, party contributions, and “mandatory donations” often swallow tens of thousands of naira, sometimes even more than a term’s tuition. The complaints are loud, the strain is real, and yet the state government has not made its position known.

The question is why silenced? One possibility is that Lagos’ sheer diversity makes enforcement a nightmare. Unlike Ekiti or Ondo, Lagos’ education sector is sprawling and heterogeneous. Implementing and monitoring a ban across such a complex landscape could overwhelm the Ministry of Education. Another possibility lies in politics: many private school owners rely on graduation ceremonies as both revenue streams and branding exercises. For the state to outlaw them would invite conflict with a powerful constituency that the government may prefer not to antagonize.

But in staying quiet, Lagos risks alienating the very people’s education policies are supposed to protect: parents.

Parents’ Voices Tell the Story

The frustration is already evident. On social media, Lagos parents and other Nigerians reacted to the wave of bans “Tina Eruemu said “It is better because some private schools are over doing it. Imagine somebody paid over 500k for SS3 after registration and the fees, the school collected 80k for graduation.”

With this empty announcement, one would expect the government to set up real machinery to enforce it. But the truth is, it’s nothing more than a show to look serious about bringing sanity to the state, when in reality no one will be punished and the rot will only deepen. After all, most of the schools belong to the same elites in government, or their families and friends. And if corruption happens by the second inside their government, is that one permitted by law, said Truth Tribe.

Dunni Ajibade: “It’s better. Some private schools are using Graduation Ceremonies to exploit parents.”

Afolabi Titilayo says “We are progressing. I am waiting for Lagos own.”
These reactions expose both the relief and the cynicism with which many Nigerians now view education policy. Yes, parents welcome measures that reduce exploitation, but without real enforcement, they fear it will simply be business as usual.

So, the debate circles back to Lagos. Should the Governor Babajide Sanwoolu follow the regional trend and place a ban? Or should he remain an outlier, letting the market regulate itself?

If Lagos truly prides itself as a pacesetter in education, it cannot afford to ignore the conversation. At stake is not just the financial well-being of parents, but also the credibility of an education system that increasingly prioritizes spectacle over substance.

The truth is simple: no child in nursery or primary school needs a graduation party to validate their learning. What they need is quality teaching, safe classrooms, and affordable access to books. Anything else is a distraction.

Until Lagos finds the courage to take a stand, parents in the state will continue to shoulder a yearly financial burden that their counterparts in neighboring states have just been freed from. And that silence more than the parties themselves is what truly needs to end.

– Omilani Debo writes from Lagos State.