Akwa-Ibom Debunks Media Reports On Out-Of-School Children, WAEC Performance
THE Akwa Ibom State Government has debunked a recent report circulating on the social media claiming that govermment is not oblivious of its poor record on Out-of-School children.
The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Uyo, also debunked the media report that the performance of the state in the 2022 West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was poor.
Etiebet described the report as misleading, false, mischievous and politically motivated, urged the public to disregard it.
She stressed that the claim on Out-Of-School children do not reflect the remarkable progress the state has recorded in the education sector in the last seven years under the current administration.
Her words: “We wish to categorically debunk the false West African School Certificate Examinations performance ratings circulating on the social media. We don’t know where such reports came from.
“This false ranking of states in Nigeria clearly did not emanate from the Examinations body WAEC 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. We urge the general public to kindly disregard these mischievous and apparently politically motivated reports”,
The Education boss disclosed that the recent result released by WAEC showed that Akwa Ibom students got the best results with one Master Valour Mbre Inyang scoring ‘A’s in all subjects at both national and international examinations he wrote.
She also disclosed that the state has 3,129,620 school children in public and government approved private schools, stressing, “These school children are effectively accommodated in 2,826 public and private schools in the State”
Etiebet stressed that the impressive number of school children was clearly a product of the education master plan of the current administration which led to improved facilities, employment of additional teachers, prompt payments of salaries and other emoluments to teachers.
“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 100 to 200 naira per child, per term 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”, Etiebet said.
The report had stated in part: “The government of Akwa Ibom State is not oblivious of its poor records on Out-of-School, children.
“The analysis of the budgets and financial statement of Akwa Ibom state between 2016 and 2021 shows that the problem was already identified and provisions were made on paper to tackle the prevalence 6years before NBS published its report in 2021, but there have been no monetary releases for the execution of these programmes since 2016”
