The Federal Government has announced plans to phase out the policy separating Junior Secondary Schools from Senior Secondary Schools following the revelation that more than 20 million pupils drop out before progressing to the senior secondary level.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.
According to the minister, the policy requiring JSS and SSS to operate separately with different principals and facilities has failed to achieve its intended objectives and has contributed to poor transition rates within the education system.
“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 imbalance has led to overcrowding in junior secondary schools while many senior secondary schools remain underutilised, particularly in states such as Kaduna and other parts of northern Nigeria.
“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to create a director level for people while we harm our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child,” the minister stated.
Alausa said the proposal to abolish the policy would be presented at the next meeting of the National Council on Education for consideration.
He said the policy shift forms part of the Federal Government’s efforts to expand access to education, improve learning outcomes and reduce the country’s growing population of out-of-school children.
“This government will not fail. We are fixing it,” he added.
The minister also inaugurated a committee chaired by Prof. Rashid Aderinoye to oversee the implementation and monitoring of UBEC-funded Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools across the country.
He noted that although the commission had invested in hundreds of such schools nationwide, many projects remained uncompleted or had yet to admit learners, describing the situation as a waste of public resources.
The committee is expected to ensure the projects are completed, handed over to state governments and opened for learning as part of efforts to strengthen basic education delivery across the country.
