Experts Urge FG To Rethink Plan To Scrap JSS-SSS System Amid Insecurity And Poverty
Experts Urge FG to Rethink Plan to Scrap JSS-SSS System Amid Insecurity and Poverty The Federal Government’s plan to phase out Nigeria’s separate Junior Secondary School JSS and Senior Secondary School SSS structure is facing renewed criticism, with education experts and stakeholders warning that scrapping the system may not address the deeper causes of school dropouts.
The concerns come after Education Minister Tunji Alausa said the government intends to end the policy that allows JSS and SSS to operate separately, arguing that the arrangement has contributed to poor transition rates and overcrowding in junior secondary schools. The proposal is expected to be presented to the National Council on Education. Alausa has argued that the existing “disarticulation” policy has not achieved its objectives. According to figures cited by the minister, Nigeria has about 80,000 public primary schools but only 15,000 junior secondary schools, creating a major imbalance in the transition from primary to secondary education. He also cited 20 million dropouts between primary school and JSS as evidence of the scale of the problem. The proposed reform would effectively bring JSS and SSS under a more continuous secondary-school structure, with the government seeking to improve access and keep more children in education for longer. A similar 12-year uninterrupted basic-education model was proposed by the Federal Government in 2025 as a replacement for the 6-3-3-4 system, although the current proposal is specifically focused on ending the administrative separation between JSS and SSS. The Guardian’s editorial board argues that the government should first conduct a thorough assessment of how the current policy has been implemented before abandoning it. The argument is that if the system is failing because schools, administrators or other stakeholders have not properly implemented it, the appropriate response could be to strengthen implementation rather than cancel the policy altogether.
Education experts have similarly warned that replacing the structure without addressing underlying weaknesses could create new problems. Senior Advocate of Nigeria and educationist Sylvester Onoja, for example, previously warned that a 12-year model could increase the financial burden on low-income families, weaken early vocational training and reduce flexibility for students who need alternative routes into technical education or employment.
One of the strongest arguments against blaming the JSS-SSS structure for Nigeria’s dropout crisis is the country’s worsening insecurity. The Guardian noted that children and teachers in several parts of Nigeria face the threat of kidnapping, terrorism and attacks on schools. Such insecurity can force schools to close and make parents reluctant to send their children to school. Students who remain in school can also struggle to concentrate when they fear that they or their teachers could become victims of violence.
The issue has become particularly serious in parts of northern Nigeria, where insecurity has repeatedly disrupted education.
Economic hardship is another major factor. Rising living costs have left many families struggling to afford basic necessities, making education increasingly difficult to sustain. For some households, school fees, uniforms, books, transportation and other expenses can become unaffordable. The Guardian argues that simply extending the period of compulsory education will not necessarily solve the problem if parents cannot afford to keep their children in school.
Critics therefore question whether a structural reform can significantly reduce dropout rates without simultaneous action on poverty, insecurity, unemployment and inadequate school infrastructure. The existing 6-3-3-4 structure was designed in part to expose students to vocational and technical skills, particularly during the junior secondary years. Supporters of retaining the structure argue that those skills can provide young Nigerians with opportunities for self-employment and technical careers without requiring every student to follow an exclusively academic pathway.
Onoja has similarly argued that dismantling the existing structure could delay students’ access to vocational training and reduce the number of entry and exit points available to young people who do not follow a conventional academic route. thee debate ultimately goes beyond whether JSS and SSS should remain administratively separate. Nigeria’s education system faces longstanding challenges involving underfunding, inadequate infrastructure, teacher shortages, insecurity, poverty and weak implementation of existing policies. Critics say changing the structure without fixing those problems risks producing another policy that looks promising on paper but struggles in practice. The Guardian editorial therefore argues that the government should establish whether the JSS-SSS model itself is fundamentally defective or whether its shortcomings are the result of poor implementation. Education policy affects millions of Nigerian children and their families, making broad consultation particularly important before a major structural change is implemented. Teachers, education administrators, parents, students, researchers and state governments all have roles in determining whether the proposed reform can work in different parts of the country. For critics, the priority should be to identify why children are leaving school and address those causes directly rather than assuming that changing the school structure will automatically keep them enrolled. Nigeria’s education crisis is real, but experts argue that scrapping the JSS-SSS system may treat a symptom rather than the disease. Insecurity, poverty, inadequate infrastructure and weak implementation remain powerful forces pushing children out of school problems that a change in school structure alone cannot solve.
