The federal government has proposed ending the separation between Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Senior Secondary School (SSS) as part of efforts to improve school retention and reduce the high number of pupils dropping out before completing secondary education.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, announced the proposal on Tuesday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Abuja.
Mr Alausa stated that the proposal would be presented at the next meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE), the country’s highest policy-making body on education.
Under Nigeria’s current education system, pupils spend six years in primary school, three years in junior secondary school and another three years in senior secondary school. At the end of JSS3, they sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) before proceeding to senior secondary school, where they take the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
The Minister said the existing structure has contributed to poor retention, with millions of children leaving school before completing senior secondary education. According to him, available data show that more than 20 million pupils have dropped out before reaching the senior secondary level.
He noted that there are currently over 80,000 public primary schools in the country, but only about 15,000 junior secondary schools.
“About 24 million children are enrolled in our primary schools, but only about four million of them complete senior secondary. We have over 20 million children dropping out between primary school and junior secondary school,” he said. “We have overflowing junior secondary schools and empty senior secondary schools.”
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Out-of-school children
Nigeria continues to grapple with one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world despite years of government interventions aimed at improving access to education. The challenge is compounded by the lack of reliable data on the number of children enrolling in schools and those dropping out.
Despite several government initiatives, such as the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) and the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), implemented in partnership with the World Bank, the challenge has persisted.
However, the Nigerian government recently introduced the Learner Identification Number (LIN), which assigns every student a permanent academic identity throughout their educational journey.
The government is also set to launch the Digital National Education Management Information System (DNEMIS), designed to consolidate all education data for schools and learners on one platform. Already, more than 32 million students are enrolled on the DNEMIS portal, according to the National Project Coordinator of the Special Programmes Operations and Implementation Unit in the Office of the Minister of Education, Adebayo Onigbanjo.
