Ninety per cent of illiterate Nigerian children come from the North, the Supervising Minister of Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, has disclosed. Speaking at the weekend during a working visit to Akwa Ibom State, Wike said that about 10 million of Nigerian children are illiterate, out of which nine million come from the North,

The minister reeled out the alarming figures at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Federal Government’s Universal Basic Education (UBE) Special Vocational School, Ukana in Essien Udim Local Government Area. He, however, assured that the Goodluck Jonathan administration is tackling the problem through the building of special vocational schools through the UBE so as to reduce the number of children roaming the streets.

Wike said that 300 such schools were being built in the North and has now turned attention to the South, starting from Akwa Ibom State. He disclosed that the project would be completed in the next six months and applauded Akwa Ibom Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, for imbibing the transformation agenda of President Jonathan through quality education in the state.

Speaking, Governor Akpabio said that the UBE Special Vocational School in Essien Udim would help to expand the educational transformation of the state. He pledged to provide adequate security, manpower and land for the realisation of the project.

In his speech, UBE Secretary, Dr. Suleiman Dikko, disclosed that recent research had it that Nigeria has the largest population of children roaming the streets without education. This, he said, was the reason the Federal Government introduced the programme designed to provide educational opportunities for boys who have dropped out of school or were never in the school.

Dikko explained that the school focuses on manpower development and skill acquisition, assuring that the one in Akwa Ibom would be well equipped and would be a full boarding institution.

Also speaking at the event, Akwa Ibom’s Commissioner for Education, Prof. Atim Antai, thanked President Jonathan for establishing a vocational school in the South South, starting from Akwa Ibom State, for skill acquisition to bring the dividends of education to every part of the country.

Antai expressed the optimism that the vocational school would usher the children into the world of achievers, assuring that Akwa Ibom was poised to provide lofty programmes through its free, compulsory education to the children.

•Photo shows Supervising Minister for Education, Wike.