The Federal Government has announced the launch of a Learner Identification Number (LIN) for schoolchildren, beginning from primary school, to track their academic progress throughout their education journey.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos.
Dr. Alausa highlighted a significant gap in the transition from primary to junior secondary school, noting that out of over 23 million pupils in more than 50,000 public primary schools, only about 3 million continue into public junior secondary schools. “It is clear that access to secondary education remains a major challenge, and we are addressing it by encouraging state governments to build more schools,” he said.
To better monitor students’ progress, the government is introducing the Learner Identification Number, which will be unique to each child and remain with them throughout their schooling, even if they transfer between schools. “If a student who should be in JSS one is absent, we will be able to determine why they are not continuing their education,” the minister explained.
Dr. Alausa also announced plans to phase out the common entrance examination for pupils moving from primary to junior secondary school. It will be replaced with Continuous Assessment (CA), which will reflect a student’s performance from primary one and transfer with them if they move to another school.
In addition, the minister revealed that the government is working to revive the school feeding programme to encourage enrolment in public schools, with plans to move the programme from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to the Federal Ministry of Education for better monitoring.