The Federal Government has announced plans to discontinue the disarticulation policy that separated Junior Secondary Schools from Senior Secondary Schools.
It noted that the arrangement has failed and has led to more than 20 million students dropping out before reaching senior secondary school.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at the inauguration of the UBEC Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.
According to him, the policy has also resulted in overcrowded junior secondary facilities and underutilised senior secondary schools in many states in the country.
The policy, he said, also prioritised administrative positions over students’ educational needs, and has left thousands of children without access to the next level of learning.
The Minister disclosed that data from states like Kaduna and other parts of the north has shown overflowing JSS classrooms while senior secondary schools remain largely empty because there is one principal for JSS and another principal for SSS.
“We have 20 million drop out from primary school to JSS. Where are those students? And what we also noticed was that we have 80,000 public primary schools, and junior secondary school, we have just about 15,000. That ratio is one to eight.
“And if you look at the completion rate. The previous government might have failed in this regard, but this government will not fail. We’re fixing this. So, we need to open up as much more opportunities for students to attend these schools, primary schools infrastructure.
“This disarticulation policy has also contributed to this. We’re seeing data from, say, like Kaduna and other northern states, because you have one principal for junior secondary school and another principal for senior secondary schools. We have overflowing JSS, empty senior secondary school.
“So, I can objectively report today that this disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to create director level for people while we harm our education system. It’s not right. It’s about doing what is good for every Nigerian child.”
According to him, the proposal to abolish the policy will be tabled for consideration at the next meeting of the National Council on Education as part of efforts to expand access and improve learning outcomes for Nigerian children.
The high-powered committee chaired by Prof. Rashid Aderinoye is to ensure that hundreds of Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools funded by the Universal Basic Education Commission are completed, handed over to states and opened for learning.
The committee, he said, would drive implementation and monitoring to ensure the projects deliver quality education.
Stressing that UBEC has invested heavily in the three categories of schools across the country, he pointed out that many projects remained unfinished, while several completed schools are yet to be handed over to state governments or integrated into their education systems.
The Minister described the situation as a waste of public resources and a denial of learning opportunities for thousands of children.
Earlier, UBEC Executive Secretary, Aisha Garba, said the Federal Government has made significant progress in expanding access to quality basic education through its Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools initiatives.
According to her, 37 Smart Schools has been established across the federation, with 24 already conducting academic activities, while the remaining schools were at different stages of completion, furnishing and operational readiness.
Under the UBEC–Islamic Development Bank Bilingual Education Programme, she said 30 schools had been established in nine participating states, with three boarding schools completed and commissioned and four others awaiting commissioning.
She noted that the Alternative Schools Programme is also expanding access to education for out-of-school children through flexible and inclusive learning.
The newly inaugurated Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Team, she said, would monitor project implementation, facilitate timely completion and handover of schools, resolve bottlenecks, and ensure government investments translate into fully functional schools.