Abuja — Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State has blamed lack of proper education and the prevailing moral degeneration amongst students and pupils across the country on government's take-over of missionary schools.

He said: "Lack of religious education in the school curricula has engendered campus cultism and other social vices in Nigeria schools.

Akpabio made the statement recently, in Uyo, the state capital, when a team of researchers and policy consultants from the Governors Forum secretariat paid him a visit at the Government House.

He noted that right from the day federal government took over schools from their original owners the entrepreneurial spirit of people in the country were killed and moral decadence in society soured.

His words: "Education remains the primary focus of my administration and we are determined to give it to our people. I will tell you what has happened so far in the educational system of this nation.

"Societal values have crumbled. Right from the day government took over religious education in the country the entrepreneurial spirit of the people came under siege causing lack of proper education and high level of immorality. In fact, taking over religious education has engendered cultism".

Akpabio further stated that to fight militancy and social vices in society, his government declared free and compulsory educationfrom primary to senior secondary school levels in the state.

"Soon as I came into office in 2007,, I saw the need to declare free and compulsory education from primary school to secondary. So far I have renovated about 1500 classroom blocks in primary and post primary schools.

"By this I hope to fight militancy and cultism in the state. I tell you that today our enrolment has gone up tremendously.

Governor Akpabio revealed that though his administration scrapped parents/teachers association in the state he was committed to making sure that no child should be kept out of because he had nobody to pay his fees.

"We are making sure that No child is kept out of school because his parents are dead and therefore, there is nobody to pay his fees.

"For some time now we have been paying N100 per child per term for primary schoolchildren and N300 for children in secondary schools", he said.