The Federal Government has announced plans to scrap the Junior Secondary School Common Entrance Examination and introduce a Learner Identification Number to track pupils throughout their academic journey.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos on Saturday.
According to him, the reforms aim to improve access to education and strengthen pupil tracking nationwide. The common entrance exam will be phased out and replaced with a broader evaluation system.
“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,” he said.
Alausa noted that the changes are designed to address gaps in the transition from primary to secondary education. He highlighted concerns over the large number of pupils who fail to progress.
“We have over 50,000 public primary schools in the country with over 23 million pupils… only a little over 3 million… move to the junior secondary school level… where are the about 20 million not enrolled?” he queried.
He stressed that the shortfall reflects a major access problem and called for urgent action by state governments. He added that more schools must be built to accommodate growing numbers.
“It is obvious that we cannot say our private schools accommodate all of them… The issue is simply lack of access… State governments need to build more schools,” he said.
The minister also announced the introduction of a Learner Identification Number to track pupils from primary school. The unique number will follow each child regardless of school transfers.
“To also follow up on our pupils and students… it will be unique to each child… no matter where they started schooling or later transferred to,” he explained.
He said the system would help authorities monitor progress and identify dropouts early.
“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.
Alausa further revealed plans to revive the school feeding programme to boost enrolment. He added that the initiative may be moved to the Federal Ministry of Education for better oversight.
The reforms are part of broader efforts to strengthen the education sector, improve retention, and ensure more Nigerian children complete basic education.
