By Deborah Tolu-Kolawole
The Universal Basic Education Commission disclosed, on Monday, it had partnered with the Council for Registration of Engineers in Nigeria to curb the rising cases of school building collapse in the country.
The 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 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 UBEC, would no longer condone 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 work with SUBEBs to improve the quality of educational structures in order to 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.
“We are dealing with a very strategic sector, children who are between the ages of five, six 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.
According to him, for quite some time, the commission has had an elaborate monitoring system as far as the construction of educational infrastructure or school infrastructure is concerned.
He also said the Commission was working with NBRRI through its Chief Executive, Prof. Samson Duna, and had also been working with the Council for Registration of Engineers in Nigeria for a few years to make sure that they are part of the monitoring teams at the state level.
“Instead of just looking at what is there and so on and so forth, it’s to go with the kind of gadgetry that can also help us to test the strength of the materials that are being used,” he said.
Also speaking, the Director-General/CEO, NBRRI, Prof. Samson Duna, said the training programme was a proactive steps by UBEC to forestall the incidence of rampant building collapse in Nigeria, especially school buildings.
“So I’m now throwing a warning to contractors involved in taking contracts in constructing schools without following the required specification. They should sit up.
“UBEC has come up with an idea of ascertaining the quality of construction material used on site. The quality of concrete needs to be specified and the contractor must adhere to it. If he didn’t use it, the UBEC staff visiting the site, they are expected to travel or to come with tools.
“And those tools will enable them to know if the contractor is using the right material. Both steel, which is a factory product, also confirm if the concrete used is in conformity with the design,” he stated.
© PUNCH
