The Federal Government has announced plans to abolish the separation of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), describing the policy as a major driver of Nigeria’s worsening out-of-school children crisis.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed the decision on Tuesday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee, declaring that the existing policy has failed to achieve its purpose and has fuelled the country’s high dropout rate.
The minister said more than 20 million Nigerian children fail to progress from primary school to junior secondary school, a gap he attributed largely to the acute shortage of JSS facilities nationwide.
“We have 20 million dropouts from primary school to JSS. Where are those students? We also found we have 80,000 public primary schools and only about 15,000 junior secondary schools. That’s a one-to-eight ratio,” Alausa said.
He explained that the shortage of junior secondary schools has left many pupils without access to continued education, while the few available facilities are overcrowded, even as many senior secondary schools remain underutilised, particularly in Kaduna and other northern states.
Calling the arrangement an unsuccessful policy, Alausa said the Federal Government would begin phasing it out to prioritise access to education for every Nigerian child.
“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to create a director-level office while harming our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child,” he stated.
According to the minister, the proposal will be presented before the National Council on Education for approval, with the reform expected to improve pupil transition between education levels and boost learning outcomes nationwide.
Expressing confidence in the administration’s reform agenda, Alausa said, “This government will not fail. We are fixing it.”
The minister also inaugurated a separate committee chaired by Prof. Rashid Aderinoye to monitor UBEC-funded Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools across the country. The committee is expected to ensure the projects are completed, handed over to state governments and opened to learners, following concerns that many such schools remain abandoned or yet to admit students despite huge public investment.
Nigeria continues to have one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world, with millions of children, particularly in rural and conflict-affected communities, still unable to access formal education.
Education experts maintain that improving access will require more than building new schools, stressing the need to ensure completed facilities are fully operational, adequately staffed and accessible to every child.
-Ogbeni Olawale Dawodu
