by Hauwa Gambo

The government of Akwa Ibom Government has banned the use of cell phones by public school students  students in public schools in the state.

Talking to newsmen in Uyo, the state’s capital, its education commissioner Eunice Thomas said this is to avoid distraction during school hours.

“The measure is to ensure complete utilisation of the present administration’s huge investment in the education sector and to achieve the government’s dream of producing quality graduates,” she said.

She added that the ministry is hard at work training and re-training school teachers and heads, and that the government has just added 1, 004 teachers for public secondary schools and 100 more for technical schools to meet the needs of increased enrolment.

She also explained the new policy of surprise inspection of schools. “Since we earn our living by teaching the children, we would be cheating the children by not teaching them,” she said. “So we have to ensure that the teachers rise to the challenge of justifying the confidence reposed in them by both government and parents.

“We are trying to grow enough education economy in Akwa Ibom State and for export. We do not want industries that would come to the state in future to complain of lack of manpower to man their facilities. So every Akwa Ibom child must be a professional in one prominent field or the other.”