FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ABOLISH COMMON ENTRANCE, INTRODUCE STUDENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS TO TRACK ACADEMIC PROGRESS
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By: Muftau Fatimo
The Federal Government has revealed its intention to discontinue the Junior Secondary School Common Entrance Examination and implement a Learner Identification Number to monitor students’ progress from primary school throughout their academic journey.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa shared this during a press briefing with journalists in Lagos on Saturday.
As reported by Tribune, the Minister stated that the reforms are designed to enhance access to education and enable more effective tracking of students nationwide. He added that the common entrance exam would be gradually phased out and replaced with a more holistic assessment system.
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.”
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The minister added that the new system would help address gaps in the transition from primary to secondary education, particularly the large number of pupils who fail to progress to the next level.
Providing data to support the reform, Alausa said millions of pupils enrolled 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, then the question is, where are the about 20 million not enrolled in our public secondary schools?” he queried.
He noted 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 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.
To address 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 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 further explained that the system would allow authorities to track students’ academic progress and pinpoint those who leave school prematurely.
“If a student is supposed to be in JSS 1 and is absent, we will be able to determine the reason for their discontinuation of education,” Alausa stated.
The Minister also revealed that steps are being taken to revive the school feeding programme to encourage higher enrolment in public schools, noting that the initiative might be transferred to the Federal Ministry of Education for better oversight.
These proposed reforms are part of the government’s wider strategy to enhance the education sector, increase student retention, and ensure that more Nigerian children complete their basic education.
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