The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) will finance 31 school improvement projects in Kaduna State, under the 2019 School-Based Management Committee School Improvement Programme (SBMC-SIP).
Mrs Esther Jibji, Desk Officer, SBMC-SIP, Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (Kaduna SUBEB), stated this in Kaduna on Monday at a one-day Stakeholders’ Sensitisation Meeting on Implementation of the 2019 SBMC-SIP Programme.
Jibji explained that the SBMC-SIP programme was designed by UBEC to support public schools through SBMCs in school improvement activities with emphasis on rural and poor urban communities.
She noted that SUBEB would provide 90 per cent of the cost of the projects while the benefiting communities would provide the remaining 10 per cent in cash or in kind.
“The projects will be executed within six months for special and macro projects and two months for micro projects.
“Schools will submit proposals for funding support to the Local Government Education Authority who will submit eligible proposals to Kaduna SUBEB for assessment, listing and onward submission to UBEC.
“UBEC will review SUBEB’s assessment and select those that are qualified for verification where the claims of the SBMCs will be ascertained.
“The qualified schools will be notified by UBEC through Kaduna SUBEB,” she said.
Jibji said that 62 projects were executed under the 2018 intervention at the cost of N31.5 million.
Also speaking, Radiva Kagara, Head of Department, UBEC Social Mobilisation, Northwest Zone, said that the meeting was designed to create the needed awareness about the programme among critical stakeholders.
“We want the community representatives and the critical stakeholders to know the project’s concepts, project type, eligibility, implementation strategies, selection and verification processes.
“This programme emphasised the importance of school and community participation in school development.
“It is also a training for benefiting SBMCs to generate and provide the required counterpart-fund for project implementation.
“I am confident that sensitization will pave way for smooth implementation of the 2019 SBMC-SIP projects in Kaduna state,” Kagara said.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman, Kaduna SUBEB, Mr Tijjani Abdullahi, thanked UBEC for its intervention toward improving school infrastructure in the state.
Abdullahi, represented by the Permanent Member, Human Resources Management, Dr Christy Alademerin, urged the SBMCs to work with the education secretaries in the 23 local government areas to ensure the success of the programme.
He encouraged the SBMCs to mobilise the needed 10 per cent required resources in cash or in kind to access the 90 per cent funding from UBEC, if selected.
Reports said that participants at the sensitisation meeting included the education secretaries in the 23 Local Government Education Authority.
Others are, Social Mobilisation officers, SBMCs desk officers, representatives of the Nigerian Union of Teachers and Association of Primary School Head Teachers of Nigeria.