The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has expressed support for the Federal Government of Nigeria’s (FGN) proposal to abolish the separation between Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), describing the planned reform as a necessary policy review.

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, recently unveiled the proposal during a forum in Abuja, explaining that the move was prompted by data indicating that more than 20 million pupils leave school before progressing to the senior secondary level. According to the minister, the policy change is aimed at keeping more learners in school until they complete their secondary education.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune over the weekend, NUT National President, Mr. Audu Titus Amba, welcomed the proposal, stressing that government policies should be reassessed whenever they fail to achieve their intended objectives.

“When you try a policy and you find out it is not working, you change it,” Amba said.

He added, “That decision is for policymakers to make, and I believe that is what informed this proposal. The government wants to introduce another policy that may likely work. As teachers, we have no problem with that. Our role is to collaborate and implement government policies across all levels of governance.”

Amba noted that the separation of JSS and SSS, introduced in 1986, has not produced the expected results.

“There is no major impact of that separation on our education, and this is glaring to everyone.

“That is why, as far as we are concerned, we don’t have any problem with the government changing the policy. After all, we had the ‘Form One to Form Five’ secondary education format before changing to the JSS and SSS structure.

“During that period, students chose the subjects they sat for in their terminal examinations in Form Three. I am a product of that arrangement, which ended in 1985,” he noted.

While reaffirming the union’s readiness to implement government education policies, Amba stressed that teachers’ interests must remain a priority throughout the reform process.

He said, “Ours is to align with the government’s policy, provided teachers are taken into consideration. The government must provide a conducive environment, look after our welfare, and ensure that teachers can teach and students can learn in a secure environment without fear of attack. We don’t want a situation where our schools have now become soft targets for kidnappers. What we want is a policy that works for the good of everyone and the betterment of society.”

Responding to recent figures indicating that only 25 per cent of 10-year-olds in Nigerian schools can read and understand simple text, the NUT president attributed the outcome to differences in children’s learning abilities.

“Some children learn fast, while others are slow learners. That difference is what accounts for the statistics, and the government should take this into account when designing educational policies,” he stated.