Some primary school head teachers and communities from three local government areas of Kaduna state Tuesday decried the menace of school building collapse and appealed to relevant authorities to ensure proper project monitoring to avert recurrence.
They made their position known at a workshop on the State of Universal Basic Education (UBE) projects in Kauru, Kubau and Zaria local government areas of the state.
The workshop which was organised by Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education ((CHRICED) specifically drew education stakeholders from the three local government areas.
The participants included; Parents, Teachers, Headmasters, Principals of Junior Secondary School and School Base Management Committee (SBMC) members among others.
The stakeholders attributed the recurrence of school building collapse to exclusion of benefitting communities in the monitoring of projects cited in their domain.
They cited an example of a case in Zaria local government where a primary school pupil lost his life as a result of building collapse due substandard project.
The stakeholders appealed to relevant authorities to look into the possibility of making “Contracts Bill of Quantity” available to headmasters as well as members of SBMC to ensure proper monitoring of projects in their respective areas.
While lamenting that some projects were still abandoned, the stakeholders also complained that some contracts were being carried out without the consent of Education Secretaries (ES), headmasters or principals of Junior Secondary Schools.
The stakeholders, however, appreciated the efforts of Kaduna State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) on its project intervention in both Primary and Junior Secondary Schools across the state.
Responding, Director, Physical Monitoring, SUBEB, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed-Makarfi identified communication gap between communities, contractors and SUBEB as one of the major constraints.
He advised communities to formally write to their respective education secretaries in case of any substandard projects by any contractor, who would transmit it to higher authority through appropriate channel.
