THE Federal Government has announced plans to abolish the policy separating junior secondary schools from senior secondary schools, saying the arrangement has contributed to the growing education crisis that has left more than 20 million pupils unable to progress beyond primary school.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, made the announcement on Tuesday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.
Alausa said the policy, introduced to place junior and senior secondary schools under separate administrative structures, had failed to improve education and had instead worsened access to learning across the country.
He explained that findings by the ministry revealed a huge imbalance between the number of primary schools and junior secondary schools nationwide.
According to him, Nigeria has about 80,000 public primary schools but only around 15,000 junior secondary schools, creating a one-to-eight ratio that has prevented millions of pupils from continuing their education.
“We have 20 million dropouts from primary school to junior secondary school. 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 noted that the shortage of junior secondary schools had resulted in overcrowded classrooms, while many senior secondary schools remained underutilised.
The minister said the Federal Government would phase out the policy and present the proposal to the National Council on Education for approval.
“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t create positions because we want to create a director-level position for people while we harm our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child,” he said.
Alausa described the proposed reform as part of broader efforts to improve access to education and enhance learning outcomes.
“This government will not fail. We are fixing it,” he added.
The minister also expressed concern over the country’s worsening learning crisis, revealing that three out of every four Nigerian children at the basic education level cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text by the age of 10.