The Federal Government has announced plans to phase out the long-standing policy separating Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) from Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), following alarming data showing that more than 20 million Nigerian pupils dropped out before reaching senior secondary education.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, made the announcement during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee in Abuja.
According to the minister, the "disarticulation policy," which requires JSS and SSS to operate under separate principals and management structures, has failed to achieve its purpose and is now contributing to Nigeria's education crisis.
"This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can't be creating positions because we want to create director-level positions while we harm our education system. It's about doing what is best for every Nigerian child," Alausa declared.
Alausa revealed that the government discovered a major imbalance in the education system, with about 80,000 public primary schools across the country but only 15,000 junior secondary schools, creating a one-to-eight ratio that has made many JSS facilities overcrowded.
He explained that while junior secondary schools are struggling with excessive student populations, many senior secondary schools remain underutilised, especially in states such as Kaduna and several northern states.
The minister stressed that the government is now placing greater priority on improving learning outcomes and ensuring that more children successfully transition from primary to secondary education rather than maintaining administrative structures that no longer serve students.
As part of the planned reform, the proposal to abolish the JSS-SSS separation policy will be presented at the next meeting of the National Council on Education, Nigeria's highest education policymaking body. If approved, implementation guidelines and timelines will be announced afterward.
The move is expected to increase access to secondary education, reduce dropout rates, ease congestion in junior secondary schools, and make better use of existing senior secondary school facilities across the country.