By Chioma Iruke
Federal Ministry of Education has dismissed some social media reports claiming that Bauchi state has the highest number of out-of-school children numbering 1,239,759.
Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Ben Goong, disclosed this in Abuja, over the weekend.
Goong said the information was published by some unscrupulous elements bent at destroying the reputation of the ministry and hence such information should be discarded.
“This story claiming the number of out-of-school children is fake. How can Bauchi have this number? What will now be the number of those in school. It will be a good thing if the government can control social media.
“People just derive pleasure in churning out what is not true. The fact that we have rights does not mean we should dish out stories that are untrue,” he said.
A story of out-of-school children was published on August 24 by an online research report using graphical representation to illustrate the figures from the different states.
The report claimed that Bauchi state has the highest figures of 1,239,759, followed by Katsina with 873,633 and Kano with 837,479, while Edo state has the lowest number of out-of-school children with 79,446.
