My Candid Thought On The Proposed Scrapping Of Junior Secondary School || By Comrade Iru-Davies Paulson
I have read with an open mind the recent statement by the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on the proposed scrapping of Junior Secondary School.
If pursued, this action will be catastrophic for our education system.
Education is built on foundation.
From simple to complex — a child must first crawl, sit, stand, walk, and run before learning to fly.
This sequential order is the bedrock of formal education.
The pre-primary and post-primary stages are where a child’s intellect, character, and learning habits are formed.
What a child absorbs at this stage determines how far they will go in Senior Secondary School and in tertiary institutions.
The real crisis is not structure; it is neglect.
Our high dropout rates and poor performance in WAEC and JAMB are not caused by an extra three years of schooling.
They are the result of a failed system: no real political will, no enabling environment for the common man, and teachers who are poorly paid and demotivated.
Only the children of the wealthy can access quality private schools and excel.
Meanwhile, the average Nigerian child cannot even feed properly — “a hungry man is an angry man” — let alone learn well. Corruption, the cankerworm eating deep into our nation, must be confronted first.
Instead of scrapping JSS, we must strengthen it. Here’s how:
1. Employ trained teachers with decent pay, incentives, and dignity.
2. Set up proper monitoring and accountability teams in all schools.
3. Institutionalize frequent teacher training and retraining courses.
4. Provide adequate learning facilities — classrooms, libraries, labs, and learning materials.
5. Create a safe, enabling environment that is conducive to learning.
6. Promote value-based educational programs to counter morally corrosive content like BBNaija that misdirects our children.
7. Introduce awards and scholarship schemes to motivate learners and reward excellence.
*In conclusion,* I passionately appeal to the Honourable Minister of Education to have a rethink. Do not cut the foundation. Fix the foundation.
Thank you for reading with a neutral mind.
Cmr. Iru-Davies Paulson Bonaventure
General Secretary, Association of Independent Publishers, Nigeria [AIPN]
