A’Ibom Faults Reports on Out-of-School Children, Poor Performance in WAEC

Okon Bassey in Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State Government has faulted reports on the prevalence of out-of-school children and poor performance of the state in the 2022 West African Examinations Council (WAEC) results.  

The State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet, in a statement issued in Uyo, yesterday described the reports as misleading, mischievous and politically motivated.

Reports had it that the state has a prevalence of out-of school children and also allegedly being ranked poor in the West African Schools Certificate Examination.

But the Commissioner for Education debunked both reports, describing the ranking of the state as false and fictitious, as it did not emanate from the examination body, WAEC and did not reflect the remarkable progress the state has recorded in the education sector in the past seven years under Governor Udom Emmanuel.

She 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 payments of salaries and other emoluments to teachers across the state,” she stated.

She hinted 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 NABTEB fees for all students in Public Secondary Schools in the State, running into N1billion each year and also pays subventions of N100 to N200 per child, per term respectively to all public primary and secondary schools respectively, to discourage all forms of hidden charges by schools’ heads.

“In the 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.

“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.

“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,” the commissioner added.

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,” the commissioner added.