In a move to strengthen accountability in Nigeria’s education sector, the Federal Government has announced plans to introduce a unique identification number for pupils across the country.
Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed the initiative during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, explaining that the system will assign a unique number to every child to track their movement across schools and education levels.
According to him, the new tracking system is designed to close critical gaps in the transition from primary to junior secondary school, where millions of pupils fail to progress.
“If a child is expected to be in JSS1 and is not there, we will be able to identify why and intervene appropriately”, he said.
The minister revealed that of the estimated 23 million pupils in more than 50,000 public primary schools nationwide, only about three million advance to junior secondary education. “The big question is, where are the remaining millions?”, he asked, identifying limited access to schools as a major challenge.
To address this, Alausa said the government is working with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to expand school infrastructure and improve capacity. He added that plans are also underway to revive the national school feeding programme to boost enrolment and retention, with a possible transfer of oversight to the Federal Ministry of Education for better monitoring.
Meanwhile, the ministry, through its spokesperson, Folasade Boriowo, dismissed reports suggesting the scrapping of the National Common Entrance Examination, maintaining that the policy remains in place.
Officials say the new learner identification system will improve data tracking, strengthen planning, and help ensure more children remain in school.
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