The minister of education Tunji Alausa has announced the Federal Government readiness to scrap the common entrance examination for pupils moving from primary school to junior secondary school in Nigeria replacing it with a continuous assessment system.
The minister who made the announcement on Saturday during a meeting with journalists in Lagos, explained that the new method will track pupils’ performance from primary one instead of relying on a single exam as it used to be
Tunji Alausa maintained that the assessment record will track pupils academic performances as they change schools.
He said the federal government is also set to introduce a Learner Identification Number for pupils starting from primary school. According to him , the number will be unique to each child and will remain with them throughout their education, regardless of transfers between schools.
He explained further that Nigeria currently has over 50,000 public primary schools with more than 23 million pupils. However, only a little above 3 million transition to junior secondary schools in the public system.
Tunji Alausa who confirmed that the government is working to revive the school feeding programme as part of measures to attract more children to public schools also revealed that there are plans to move the programme from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to the Federal Ministry of Education for an improved monitoring and coordination.