The Federal Government has announced plans to abolish the policy separating Junior Secondary Schools from Senior Secondary Schools after discovering that more than 20 million children are dropping out before progressing to senior secondary education.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed the planned reform on Tuesday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.
According to the minister, the long-standing policy requiring junior and senior secondary schools to operate independently—with separate principals, management structures and facilities—has failed to achieve its intended purpose and has instead worsened access to education.
Highlighting the scale of the challenge, Alausa said the country has a severe mismatch between the number of primary schools and junior secondary schools available to accommodate pupils transitioning through 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,” he said.
He explained that the disparity has placed enormous pressure on existing junior secondary schools, leading to overcrowded classrooms, while many senior secondary schools remain underutilised. He noted that the problem is particularly evident in Kaduna State and several other states in northern Nigeria.
Declaring the policy unsuccessful, the minister said the government has resolved to discontinue it in the interest of improving educational access for Nigerian children.
“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”, he added.
Alausa said the proposal to formally abolish the policy will be presented at the next meeting of the National Council on Education for consideration and approval.
He described the planned reform as part of broader efforts to improve enrolment, strengthen progression between education levels and enhance learning outcomes nationwide.
Acknowledging previous shortcomings in addressing the transition gap between primary and secondary education, the minister expressed confidence that the current administration would deliver meaningful reforms.
“This government will not fail. We are fixing it.”
During the event, Alausa also inaugurated a ministerial committee headed by Prof. Rashid Aderinoye to supervise the implementation of UBEC-funded Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools across the country.
The committee has been tasked with ensuring that the projects are completed, formally handed over to state governments and opened for academic activities.
Although UBEC has invested in hundreds of these schools nationwide, the minister lamented that many remain unfinished or have yet to admit students, describing the situation as an inefficient use of public funds.
Nigeria continues to grapple with one of the world’s largest out-of-school child populations, with millions of children—especially those living in rural, underserved and conflict-affected communities—still unable to access formal education.
Education stakeholders have repeatedly maintained that solving the crisis requires not only building more schools but also ensuring that completed facilities are fully equipped, adequately staffed and operational so that more children can remain in school and complete their education.
(Ripples)
