The Federal Government has announced plans to phase out the policy separating Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) from Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), saying the arrangement has actually stopped working and added to the country’s growing school dropout crisis.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja throughout the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Execution and Keeping Track Of Committee.
According to the minister, the disarticulation policy, which needs JSS and SSS to operate independently both physically and administratively, has caused overcrowded junior secondary schools while many senior secondary schools remain underutilised across a number of states.
Alausa stated the policy put administrative interests above the educational requirements of trainees, leaving countless kids without a smooth shift to senior secondary education.
He revealed that more than 20 million trainees have dropped out in between main school and junior secondary school, attributing the situation partly to inadequate facilities and the imbalance in the number of schools.
“We have 20 million leave from primary school to JSS. Where are those students? We have about 80,000 public primary schools but only about 15,000 junior secondary schools. That ratio is one to eight,” he said.
The minister kept in mind that government information from states consisting of Kaduna showed junior secondary schools running beyond capacity while neighboring senior secondary schools remained largely empty because both levels are handled independently with various principals.
He explained the policy as not successful, worrying that the existing administration would prioritise reforms that improve access to education rather than develop extra administrative positions.
“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to produce director-level roles for individuals while we damage our education system. It has to do with doing what benefits every Nigerian child,” Alausa stated.
He included that the proposition to abolish the policy would be presented at the next meeting of the National Council on Education for factor to consider as part of more comprehensive efforts to expand access to education and improve discovering results nationwide.