UBEC to deploy quality control team to monitor construction of school buildings

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has vowed to crack down on substandard school building construction across the country.

The commission says it is also working with the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) to deploy a team that will monitor quality control for school-related building constructions.

Hamid Bobboyi, the executive secretary of UBEC, spoke during a training for the commission’s physical planning department in Abuja.

The training, organised in collaboration with the NBRRI and the private firm Tectonics Engineering Group, is about enhancing the quality delivery of projects with on-the-spot assessment of construction sites.

Bobboyi urged stakeholders including the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB) to ensure quality in the delivery of school building projects.

He noted that the commission would no longer condone the shoddy execution of projects and warned contractors about the risks of delivering substandard school infrastructure.

Bobboyi said the commission would deploy monitors who would frequently go to find out what is going on across construction sites.

He said educational infrastructures are sensitive projects that must be handled with responsibility so as not to risk the lives of children.

In July, at least 22 people were killed after a two-storey school building collapsed in the Busa Buji, Jos north LGA of Plateau state.

The incident, which injured 132, was said to have occurred while students and teachers were in classes for the third term exam.

Bobboyi said the building was not UBEC-sponsored but states must take proactive steps to ensure that contractors handling school building projects adhere strictly to specifications.

“Children who are between the ages of 5, 6 up to about 12 are very vulnerable in any building collapse. 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.

Samson Duna, the CEO of NBRRI, said the UBEC training is a step towards preventing school-related building collapses.

He said participants would be visiting sites to ascertain if a contractor is using the right steel and concrete for building construction.