FG set to abolish JSS-SSS separation in major education shake-up

The Federal Government has announced plans to abolish the long-standing policy separating Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) from Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), following revelations that more than 20 million Nigerian children have dropped out of school before reaching the senior secondary level.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed the policy shift on Tuesday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.

Alausa said the existing “disarticulation policy,” which requires junior and senior secondary schools to operate independently with separate principals, management structures and facilities, has failed to achieve its intended objectives and has instead worsened access to education.

According to him, the Federal Government will present a proposal to abolish the policy at the next meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE), the country’s highest education policymaking body.

“We have 20 million dropouts from primary school to JSS. Where are those students?” the minister queried.

“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 explained that the mismatch between the number of primary and junior secondary schools has created severe bottlenecks in the education system, leading to overcrowded classrooms at the junior secondary level while many senior secondary school facilities remain underutilised.

Alausa cited Kaduna and several northern states as examples where the policy has contributed to poor transition rates between basic and secondary education.

“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to create director-level appointments for people while we harm our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child,” he said.

The minister said the proposed reform forms part of broader efforts by the Tinubu administration to improve access to education, increase retention rates and enhance learning outcomes across the country.

He acknowledged previous shortcomings in tackling the out-of-school children crisis but expressed confidence that the current administration would reverse the trend.

“This government will not fail. We are fixing it,” Alausa declared.

At the ceremony, the minister also inaugurated the UBEC Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee, chaired by Prof. Rashid Aderinoye, to supervise the execution of UBEC-funded Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools nationwide.

He said the committee had been tasked with ensuring that the projects are completed, handed over to state governments and opened for teaching and learning.

Although UBEC has invested in hundreds of Smart Schools and related educational projects across the country, Alausa lamented that many remain abandoned, unfinished or yet to admit pupils, describing the situation as an unacceptable waste of public resources.

He stressed that improving education requires more than constructing schools, insisting that completed facilities must become fully operational and accessible to learners.