The federal government has announced intentions to end the Junior Secondary School Common Entrance Examination in favor of a Learner Identification Number, which will follow students from primary school through their academic careers.
Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, revealed this at an interactive session with journalists in Lagos on Saturday.
According to the Tribune, the minister noted that the planned reforms aim to improve access to education and provide better tracking of students throughout the country.
He stated that the common entry exam would be phased out and replaced by a more comprehensive evaluation mechanism.
He said, “It will be replaced by continuous assessment, CA. The CA will reflect the performance of the pupil from primary one, and even if a pupil is transferring from one school to another, he will take it along to his new school.”
Alausa, the minister, stated that the new system will address gaps in the transition from primary to secondary education, including the large number of students who do not progress to the next level.
Data supports the reform, as millions of students in public primary schools do not continue their education at the secondary level.
“We have over 50,000 public primary schools in the country with over 23 million pupils. However, from statistics available to us, only a little over 3 million among those pupils move to the junior secondary school level in our public schools, so the question is, where are the about 20 million not enrolled in our public secondary schools?” he queried.
He mentioned that the situation points to a major access problem, stressing the need for state governments to build more schools.
“It is obvious that we cannot say our private schools accommodate all of them. The issue is simply lack of access, and we are working on that. There is a need to build more schools, and I have met the Nigerian Governors’ Forum over that. State governments need to build more schools to accommodate more pupils and students,” he said.
Speaking on tracking challenges, the minister said the government would introduce the Learner Identification Number for pupils from the primary school level.
“To also follow up on our pupils and students, we are introducing the Learner Identification Number right from the primary school level for our children. It will be unique to each child, and they will have the number no matter where they started schooling or later transferred to,” he explained.
He also stated that the system would enable authorities to monitor students’ progress and identify those who drop out of school.
“If somebody is expected to be in JSS class one and he is not there, we will be able to know the reason why he is not continuing his education,” Alausa said.
The minister also stated that efforts are being made to resuscitate the school food program in order to increase enrollment in public schools and that the initiative may be transferred to the Federal Ministry of Education for better monitoring.
The planned improvements are part of the government’s broader attempts to strengthen the education sector, increase retention rates, and ensure that more Nigerian children complete basic education.
