17th September, 2018
Mr Jonathan Joseph, a Quantity Surveyor with Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) said that the board need about N70 billion to fix the over 4,200 public primary schools in the state.
Joseph made this known Monday in Kaduna, while responding to questions from journalists during a sensitisation meeting with media executives to enhance reportage of UBEC projects and public procurement process.
The meeting was organised by an NGO, Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women (LANW,) to enlist the support of journalists in monitoring of Universal Basic Education Commission’s (UBEC) intervention in the state.
Joseph explained that the amount was arrived at after a thorough needs assessment conducted about five years ago to determine financial resources needed to improve the quality of infrastructure in all the public primary schools in the state.
The official explained that the board gets between N2 billion and N2.5 billion annually from UBEC and the state government in the last three years.
According to him, there is a huge financial gap that needed to be filled for the board to be able to fix all pubic primary schools at the same time.
“Yes, there are lots of dilapidated public primary schools in the state, but this is not because the state government do not want to fix them, but because there are no sufficient funds.
“The problems are overwhelming and there is no money to fix all schools at the same time.
“This was why the state government declared a state of emergency in 2015 to address some of the problems.
“But within the limited available resources, the government is doing its best to rehabilitate and reconstruct schools where necessary with a view to improve the quality of education delivery in the state.”
Earlier, LANW Executive Director, Mrs. Rebecca Sako-John, explained that the meeting was to ensure accountability, efficiency and transparency in the use of government resources.
Sako-John explained that the NGO, with support from McArthur Foundation, is tracking UBE interventions in 20 schools in three local government areas of the state, namely Chikun, Soba and Kaura.
According to her, media engagement would promote the needed sustainable development through improved reportage of government interventions in the education sector.
“Enhanced media reportage will also promote citizen’s engagement and participation, needed for quality service delivery.”