The Federal Government has announced plans to abolish the policy separating Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) from Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), saying the arrangement has failed to improve access to education and has contributed to the growing number of out-of-school children.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.
Alausa said government data indicated that more than 20 million pupils who completed primary education were unable to transition to junior secondary school due to inadequate infrastructure and the existing separation policy.
He explained that Nigeria currently has about 80,000 public primary schools but only about 15,000 junior secondary schools, a disparity he said has created a significant gap in access to education.
The minister acknowledged that successive governments had not done enough to address the challenge but assured that the current administration was determined to reverse the trend and improve access to basic education.
He also said separating junior and senior secondary schools into different administrative units had resulted in overcrowded junior secondary schools while many senior secondary schools remained underutilised in several states.
According to Alausa, the policy has failed to achieve its intended objective and would be phased out because the government could not continue creating administrative positions at the expense of children’s education.
He cited Kaduna and some other northern states as examples where separate principals manage JSS and SSS, despite the imbalance in student population between the two sections.
The minister added that the proposal to scrap the policy would be presented at the next meeting of the National Council on Education for consideration and possible adoption.
