Reports about out-of-school children in Akwa Ibom is misleading – State Government

Akwa Ibom State Government has described recent report in a section of the media about the prevalence of Out-of-School children in the state as misleading, mischievous and politically motivated.

In a statement issued in Uyo by the Commissioner for Education, Idongesit Etiebet, the state government urged the public to disregard the publication, saying it is false and without any foundation.

A report circulating in some section of the media had claimed that Akwa Ibom has a prevalence of out-of school children with another report allegedly ranking the performance of States in the West African Schools Certificate Examination.

But Etiebet debunked both reports, describing the ranking as false and fictitious, saying it did not emanate from the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

Etiebet explained that the said reports which she described as fallacious, do not reflect the remarkable progress the state has recorded in the education sector in the last seven years with the impressive performances of students in exit examinations in the state.

The Commissioner disclosed that Akwa Ibom has 3,129,620 school children in public and government approved private schools.

“These school children are effectively accommodated in 2,826 public and private schools in the state.

“This impressive number of school children is clearly a product of the education master plan of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration which has led to improved facilities and employment of more teachers in schools, as well as prompt payment of salaries and other emoluments to teachers across the state,” she said.

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Etiebet disosed that the state was currently operating free, compulsory and qualitative basic education programme which makes it mandatory for every child of school age to be in school during school hours.

“This policy, which is backed by the state’s Child’s Rights Law, makes it a punishable offense for parents and guardians whose children are caught loitering during school hours. Education monitors spread across the three senatorial districts are daily enforcing compliance through daily patrol exercises.

“The State Government also pays WAEC and other fees for all students in Public Secondary Schools in the state, running into N1billion each year and also pays subventions of 100 to 200 naira per child, per term respectively to all public primary and secondary schools respectively, to discourage all forms of hidden charges by schools’ heads.

“In light of these, it can be clearly seen and stated that Akwa Ibom ranks top as far as education is concerned and could not have been the same state that such atrocious figures of out of school children could have been linked,” the commissioner explained.

“Similarly, we wish to categorically debunk the false West African School Certificate Examination performance rankings circulating on the social media. This false ranking of states in Nigeria, clearly did not emanate from the West African Examination Council and should definitely not be taken seriously,” she added.

According to her, “It should be noted that WAEC is yet to fully release all the results of its 2022 examination and as such, the states’ performance ratings spewed on the social media, is clearly fictitious. Moreover, the West African Examination Council has confirmed that it does not, and has never published states’ performance ratings.”

She maintained that students in exiting classes in the state have improved in their performances in the last few years, adding that “recent results from the O’level examinations in the country show that Akwa Ibom students bagged the best results, with one of them Master Valour Mbre Inyang scoring A’s in all subjects in national and international examinations he wrote.

“We urge the general public to kindly disregard these mischievous and apparently politically motivated reports.”