By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Federal Government has announced plans to scrap the long-standing separation of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), declaring that the policy has failed as more than 20 million pupils drop out before reaching senior secondary education.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the decision on Tuesday, 30 June, 2026 in Abuja during the inauguration of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee.
He said the proposal would be presented to the National Council on Education (NCE) for approval, following findings that the policy had created administrative bottlenecks, widened access gaps and worsened the country’s education crisis.
Alausa said data available to the Federal Government revealed a huge disparity between the number of public primary schools and junior secondary schools nationwide, making the transition to secondary education difficult for millions of children.
“We have 20 million dropouts from primary school to junior secondary school. Where are those students? 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 said.
According to him, the shortage of junior secondary schools has left existing facilities overcrowded, while many senior secondary schools remain underutilised.
Declaring the policy ineffective, the minister said the government had resolved to abolish it in the interest of Nigerian children.
“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t create positions because we want to create a director-level position for people while we harm our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child,” he said.
The JSS/SSS structure was introduced in 1982 under the National Policy on Education, popularly known as the 6-3-3-4 system, which was formulated in 1977. It separated junior and senior secondary schools into different administrative structures.
Alausa said dismantling the arrangement forms part of broader reforms aimed at expanding access to education and improving learning outcomes.
“This government will not fail. We are fixing it,” he added.
The minister also expressed concern over Nigeria’s worsening learning crisis, disclosing that three out of every four children at the basic education level cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text by the age of 10.
Speaking later at the Federal Ministry of Education/UBEC Roundtable on Digital Resources to Achieve Learning Outcomes, Alausa described the country’s learning poverty rate as unacceptable.
“Learning poverty means that by the age of 10, a child cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text. In Nigeria today, three out of every four children are learning poor. That is simply unacceptable,” he said.
He stressed that technology had become indispensable to reversing the trend.
“We don’t have a choice. We have to use technology. It is no longer feasible to continue to do things manually. Digital learning is the future, and we must deploy it to every part of the country, including the most rural communities,” he said.
The minister urged state governments to maximise existing Federal Government digital learning platforms, including the Nigeria Learning Passport, Inspire, Ignite, EduRevamp, E-Learn, the Greenfield Learning Management System and virtual classroom solutions.
According to him, the platforms provide curriculum-based lessons delivered by some of Nigeria’s best teachers and could help bridge shortages of qualified teachers in Mathematics, English Language, Physics and Chemistry.
He said schools without subject teachers could connect learners to live or recorded virtual classes, allowing students to interact with teachers remotely.
