Education can fight poverty, diseases, others – Wike

The Supervising Minister of Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has said that education was a veritable tool in the fight against poverty, diseases and various socio-cultural and political challenges.
Wike stated this at the ground-breaking ceremony of the construction of the UBE special vocational school in Evwereni, Ughelli North LGA of Delta state.

According to him, all over the world, the contribution of education to socio-economic development is very paramount especially in view of its role in human capital development.
The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, said in the recent past, efforts had been made to ensure inclusiveness in UBE delivery through the institution of priority interventions “which targets hard to reach segments of Nigeria’s school-age population.”

“Without any doubt, the incidence of a large number of out of school children in our country has posed a challenge to our quest for the attainment of higher levels of under utilisation of basic education,” he said.
In his address, the executive secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Alhaji (Dr) Dikko Suleiman, said government, through the UBE Commission and in partnership with the national implementation and monitoring committee on the integration of out of school boys in the South-east and South-south states.
He said the objective of providing the special school, amongst other things, “is to ensure that the challenge of functionality of education, especially for segment of the population that is vocationally minded, is properly addressed.”