Federal government has announced plans to end the separation between Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Senior Secondary School (SSS) as part of efforts to improve school retention and reduce the high number of pupils dropping out before completing secondary education.

Tunji Alausa, minister of Education

Tunji Alausa, minister of Education, announced the proposal on Tuesday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Abuja.

Alausa said the existing “disarticulation policy,” which requires junior and senior secondary schools to operate independently with separate principals, management structures and facilities, has failed to achieve its intended objectives and has instead worsened access to education.

According to him, the Federal Government will present a proposal to abolish the policy at the next meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE), the country’s highest education policymaking body.

“We have 20 million dropouts from primary school to JSS. Where are those students?” the minister queried.

“We also found we have 80,000 public primary schools and only about 15,000 junior secondary schools. That’s a one-to-eight ratio.”

He explained that the mismatch between the number of primary and junior secondary schools has created severe bottlenecks in the education system, leading to overcrowded classrooms at the junior secondary level while many senior secondary school facilities remain underutilised.

Alausa cited Kaduna and several northern states as examples where the policy has contributed to poor transition rates between basic and secondary education.

“This disarticulation policy has failed. We will phase it out. We can’t be creating positions because we want to create director-level appointments for people while we harm our education system. It’s about doing what is best for every Nigerian child,” he said.

The minister said the proposed reform forms part of broader efforts by the Tinubu administration to improve access to education, increase retention rates and enhance learning outcomes across the country.

He acknowledged previous shortcomings in tackling the out-of-school children crisis but expressed confidence that the current administration would reverse the trend.

“This government will not fail. We are fixing it,” Alausa declared.

At the ceremony, the minister also inaugurated the UBEC Ministerial Implementation and Monitoring Committee, chaired by Prof. Rashid Aderinoye, to supervise the execution of UBEC-funded Smart Schools, Bilingual Schools and Alternative Schools nationwide.

He said the committee had been tasked with ensuring that the projects are completed, handed over to state governments and opened for teaching and learning.

Although UBEC has invested in hundreds of Smart Schools and related educational projects across the country, Alausa lamented that many remain abandoned, unfinished or yet to admit pupils, describing the situation as an unacceptable waste of public resources.

He stressed that improving education requires more than constructing schools, insisting that completed facilities must become fully operational and accessible to learners.

Federal government has said that it plans to establish a National Skills Database as part of efforts to reduce unemployment, address the growing mismatch between available skills and industry needs, and strengthen workforce planning through data-driven policies.

The proposed database, to be developed under a Nigerian Skills Observatory, is expected to provide real-time information on the supply and demand of skills across sectors, enabling better job matching, improved policy formulation and targeted investments.

The plan was unveiled at the second National Skills and Industry Alignment Roundtable Series held in Abuja with the theme, “The Role of Data in Job Creation, Coordination and Linkages.”

Delivering the keynote address, Yemi Kale, group chief economist and managing director of Research and Trade Intelligence, Afreximbank, said Nigeria’s labour market challenge was no longer the absence of data but the inability to convert existing information into actionable intelligence.

“The challenge for us as a nation is not one of data accumulation. It is one of data integration and intelligence,” Kale said.

He explained that although vast amounts of information on education, employment, wages and skills development already exist across government agencies, educational institutions and the private sector, the data remains fragmented, making effective labour market planning difficult.

“Data tells you what exists. Intelligence tells you what is happening, what is likely to happen next and what actions should be taken,” he said.

Kale lamented that while Nigeria produces thousands of graduates annually, employers in critical sectors continue to struggle to recruit qualified workers, even as millions of Nigerians remain unemployed or underemployed.

“The problem is that employers are searching, workers are searching, policymakers are searching and investors are searching independently rather than collectively. Opportunities that should be visible remain hidden because the information needed to connect them is fragmented,” he said.

According to him, the disconnect has created structural inefficiencies that discourage investment, suppress productivity and prevent Nigeria from fully leveraging its youthful population.

He added that countries that successfully transformed their economies deliberately aligned education, skills development and workforce planning with the needs of industry.

Kale urged Nigeria to view its youthful population as an economic asset by ensuring young people acquire skills demanded by modern industries.

Speaking on the proposed National Skills Database, Rimam Nuhu, special assistant to the President on Workforce Development,  said the platform would serve as the foundation of the Nigerian Skills Observatory.

“At the most foundational level, the Skills Observatory is to create a database on the demand and supply of skills,” Nuhu said.

He explained that the National Council on Skills, chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, would rely on data generated by the observatory to formulate evidence-based policies on workforce development.

“Skills development is an input for job creation. We have a market where there are a lot of skills mismatches. Understanding exactly where those shortages exist will help us plan better and improve workforce planning.

“Ultimately, that contributes to a more productive economy,” he added.

Nuhu acknowledged ongoing debates over whether Nigeria is facing an actual shortage of skilled workers or merely a mismatch between available skills and labour market demand, stressing that the database would provide the evidence needed to guide interventions.

Earlier, Akubo Adegbe, senior special assistant to the President on Coordination and Delivery, said the roundtable was convened to tackle the fragmentation of labour market information across government institutions and the private sector.

He noted that despite huge volumes of workforce data being generated daily, the lack of coordination often leaves policymakers without a comprehensive understanding of labour market realities.

“If our first Roundtable challenged us to better align skills with industry, this second Roundtable challenges us to better align information with action,” Adegbe said.

Also speaking, Massimo De Luca, head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS,  said the EU would continue supporting Nigeria’s efforts to build a labour market capable of meeting investors’ needs.

“We have a shortage of skilled labour when it comes to big investment projects. On the other hand, we have a lot of untapped talent that is not adequately recognised.

“Those are realities that investors take into account,” De Luca said.

He commended the Office of the Vice President for leading reforms aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s skills development ecosystem.

The Federal Government’s plan comes amid persistent unemployment and skills mismatch in Nigeria, where many graduates remain jobless despite employers reporting shortages of qualified workers in critical sectors.

The National Skills Database will serve as the foundation of the proposed Nigerian Skills Observatory, an initiative designed to provide real-time labour market data to guide workforce planning, skills development and evidence-based job creation policies.

The average fare paid for domestic air travel in Nigeria rose by 20.8 per cent year-on-year to N157,552.19 in May 2026, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure represents an increase from the N130,361.85 recorded in May 2025, the bureau said in its latest Transport Fare Watch report.

The NBS said the average fare paid by air passengers for a specified domestic route (single journey) stood at N157,552.19 during the review period.

It stated that Kano recorded the highest average airfare at N184,139.29, followed by Lagos at N176,971.65.

According to the report, Gombe posted the lowest average airfare at N135,800.61, while Nasarawa recorded N138,999.14.

The bureau also reported increases across other modes of transportation.

It said the average fare paid by commuters for bus journeys within cities rose to N1,431.25 per trip in May 2026, representing a 38.63 per cent increase from N1,032.46 in the corresponding period of 2025.

Similarly, the average fare for intercity bus transportation increased to N9,699.55 per trip, up by 21.89 per cent from N7,957.41 recorded a year earlier.

The report further showed that the average fare for commercial motorcycle (Okada) transportation rose to N1,072.51 in May 2026, representing a 52.45 per cent year-on-year increase from N703.54.

For water transport, the NBS said the average fare paid by passengers on inland waterways stood at N2,276.48 during the month under review.

It noted that the figure reflected a 30.88 per cent increase compared with N1,739.32 recorded in May 2025.

The bureau attributed the data to its monthly Transport Fare Watch, which tracks changes in transportation costs across the country and provides insight into the movement of prices within the sector.