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FG scraps common entrance exam, replaces with continuous assessment system
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Learner Identification Number to track students’ academic journey nationwide
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Govt raises concern over 20m pupils missing after primary school
The Federal Government has announced plans to abolish the Junior Secondary School Common Entrance Examination and introduce a nationwide tracking system for pupils using a Learner Identification Number.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed the reform during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, explaining that the move is aimed at improving access to education and monitoring students’ progress across the country.
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He said the common entrance examination would be phased out and replaced with a continuous assessment model that captures pupils’ performance throughout their primary education.
“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 stated.
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The minister noted that the reform is designed to address gaps in the transition from primary to secondary school, particularly the alarming number of pupils who fail to advance.
Providing statistics, he said, “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?”
Alausa described the situation as a major access challenge, stressing the need for state governments to expand school infrastructure.
“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 strengthen monitoring, the minister announced the introduction of a unique Learner Identification Number for every pupil from 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 added that the system would help authorities identify dropouts and track educational progression.
“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 disclosed that efforts are underway to revive the school feeding programme to boost enrolment, noting that the initiative may be moved to the Federal Ministry of Education for better monitoring.
