The Federal Government has vowed to crack down on substandard school building constructed across the country.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, who disclosed this, urged stakeholders including the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), to ensure quality in the delivery of school building projects.
Speaking on Monday, in Abuja during the training of staff of the Commission’s department of physical planning, on enhancing quality delivery of projects, Bobboyi said the Commission would no longer condone shoddy execution of projects.
He warned contractors about the risks of delivering substandard school infrastructure in the country.
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He restated the commitment of the Commission working with SUBEBs to improve the quality of educational structures in order to ensure safe and conducive learning environment for Nigerian children.
He said 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 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 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.
He also said the Commission is working with NBRRI through its Chief Executive, Prof. Samson Duna, and Council for Registration of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) to make sure that they are part of the monitoring teams at the state level.
Speaking, the Director-General/CEO said the training programme is a proactive steps by UBEC to forestall the incidence of rampant building collapse in Nigeria, especially school buildings.
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