The Akwa Ibom State Government says it should deploy a particular monitoring activity drive to sort out truancy, road hawking by school-age youngsters throughout faculty hours, and kids not enrolled at school.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Ubong Umoh, introduced the measure in a statement dated 14 October, saying the ministry had noticed youngsters of fundamental and pre-tertiary faculty ages roaming the streets and hawking throughout faculty hours regardless of the state’s free and obligatory schooling coverage.
Under the proposed enforcement measure, the duty drive will intercept pupils who arrive late to faculty or go away class throughout faculty hours. It will even confront mother and father and guardians who fail to enrol their youngsters or wards at school, in accordance to the assertion.
The ministry recognized faculty hours as 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.
Mr Umoh mentioned the measure was supposed to maintain youngsters in school rooms, enhance their security, curb truancy and classroom distractions, and stop little one abuse.
He mentioned the initiative would additionally help the implementation of the state’s free and obligatory schooling coverage.
The commissioner, nonetheless, didn’t specify when the duty drive would start operations, how it might be constituted, or the penalties that may apply to mother and father and guardians who fail to adjust to the directive.
The directive follows the state’s poor efficiency within the 2026 National Examinations Council Senior School Certificate Examination.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in September that Akwa Ibom ranked thirty sixth among the many 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with solely 37.42 per cent of candidates acquiring a minimum of 5 credit, together with in English Language and Mathematics. The efficiency represented a significant decline from the state’s Twelfth-place rating in 2025.
The state authorities later disputed the newspaper’s report, claiming outcomes from 83 of 214 public-school examination centres had not been launched. However, it had not but offered the official knowledge it mentioned supported its place.
On 7 October, Governor Umo Eno declared a state of emergency within the schooling sector and accepted recruiting an extra 2,000 lecturers.
The new directive on faculty attendance provides enforcement towards truancy and non-enrolment to the challenges going through the state’s schooling authorities.
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