The Federal Government yesterday vowed to crack-down on contractors engaging in the construction of substandard school building projects in the country.
It hinted that already, arrangements were being put in place to deploy monitors to all its school projects across the country, warning contractors to sit up or have themselves to blame.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, stated this during the training of staff of the commission’s department of physical planning, on enhancing quality delivery of projects, using simple tools for on-the-spot assessment at project sites.
He charged stakeholders, including the State Universal Basic Education Boards, SUBEBs, to ensure quality in the delivery of school building projects henceforth, saying government would not accept anything less.
Speaking further during the event put together, in collaboration with the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute,NBRRI, and a private firm, Tectonics Engineering Group, Abuja, the UBEC boss reiterated that the commission would no longer condone shoddy execution of projects.
He warned contractors about the risks of delivering substandard school infrastructure in the country, even as he restated the commitment of the commission to improve the quality of educational structures in order to ensure 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 was going on across construction sites.
“We are dealing with very strategic sector, with children who are between the ages of five and six up to about 12 that are very vulnerable in any building collapse. We saw that when it happened in Jos.
According to him, for quite some time, the commission has had an elaborate monitoring system as far as construction of educational infrastructure or school infrastructure is concerned.
Bobboyi also said the commission was working with NBRRI through its Chief Executive, Prof. Samson Duna, and had also been working with Council for Registration of Engineers in Nigeria, COREN, for a few years to ensure they were part of the monitoring teams at the state level.