The Federal Government has vowed to crack down on substandard school building construction across the country, urging stakeholders including the State Universal Basic Education Boards to ensure quality in the delivery of school building projects.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, spoke on Monday, during the training of staff of the Commission’s department of physical planning, on enhancing the quality delivery of projects using simple tools for on-the-spot assessment at project sites.
The training was organised in collaboration with the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute and a private firm, Tectonics Engineering Group and held at UBEC Digital Resource Centre, Abuja.
Bobboyi who noted that the Commission would no longer condone the shoddy execution of projects, warned contractors about the risks of delivering substandard school infrastructure in the country.He restated the commitment of the Commission to working with SUBEBs to improve the quality of educational structures and ensure a safe and conducive learning environment for Nigerian children.
He also disclosed that the Commission would deploy monitors who would frequently go to find out what is going on across the construction sites.
He maintained that educational infrastructures are sensitive projects that must be handled with the ultimate sense of responsibility so as not to risk the lives of children and staff of the institutions.
He insisted that funds could not be enough but the little that is available must be used judiciously to ensure the delivery of solid projects all over the country.He regretted the recent incident of school building collapse in Jos, even though not a building sponsored by UBEC, urging state governments to take proactive steps to ensure that contractors handling school building projects adhere strictly to specifications.“
We are dealing with a very strategic sector, children who are between the ages of 5,6 up to about 12 that are very vulnerable in any building collapse. We saw that when it happened in Jos.“
It is our responsibility to ensure that we take all necessary steps to build school infrastructures that are solid and can stand the test of time,” he stated.Punch
