The Federal Government has announced plans to scrap the “disarticulation policy,” which required JSS and SSS to operate separately with different principals and facilities, saying it has not met its objectives.
Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa, who made the announcement on Tuesday in Abuja revealed that available data has shown more than 20 million pupils dropped out before reaching the senior secondary level.
“We have 20 million dropouts from primary school to JSS. 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.
Alausa who spoke at the inauguration of the UBEC Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee, further let out that the imbalance has led to overcrowded JSS facilities and left many senior secondary schools underutilised.
“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to create a director level for people while we harm our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child”, he added.
Citing Kaduna and other northern states as examples, the Minister informed that the proposal to abolish the policy will be tabled at the next meeting of the National Council on Education.
The policy shift, according to him would broaden access to education and improve learning results. He acknowledged past failures in addressing transition rates but stated: “This government will not fail. We are fixing it”, Alausa added.
