The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has approved the sum of N2.7 billion for the construction of 5,010 classrooms across the country.
The project is under the School Based Management Committee and School Improvement Programme (SBMC-SIP).
Mrs Mary Zakka, the State Coordinator of UBEC in Plateau, disclosed this at a one-day advocacy and sensitisation workshop organised by the Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for the success of its implementation on Thursday in Jos.
She said the commission would this year support communities under the three project categories which were, SBMC Macro to construct 1,110 classrooms within six months, SBMC Micro , 3700 classrooms and special cases with 200 classrooms.
The UBEC official said however that the communities must show commitment by contributing 10 per cent counterpart funding before such funds can be accessed.
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“For these monies to be released, the communities must contribute, this is self help for their good. Participants of this workshop should step down this training to ensure the cooperation of critical stakeholders for the success of this programme, ” she said.
Earlier in her remarks, Mrs Grace Nyam, the Director of Nomadic Education and Social Mobilisation, said the programme had been resuscitated with the objective of promoting grassroot participation, support and eventual ownership of basic education by communities.
Nyam said however, that the success was dependent on the level of community awareness, participation and support to the programme, thus the need for the workshop for education secretaries, Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and other stakeholders.
She reiterated that the success of the programme would serve as a strategy to fasttracking school development through community self help initiated programmes.
She urged participants to be committed in ensuring critical stakeholders in communities, support the programme, thus increase school enrollment, retention and completion.
In his remarks, Prof Mathew Sule, the Executive Chairman of SUBEB in Plateau, urged the participants to sensitise stakeholders on the need to contribute towards the improvement of the standard of education in the State.
He said that the basic requirements for ensuring improvement in education was infrastructure development and the quality of teachers, saying that access to the intervention would facilitate that.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that more than 40 persons participated in the workshop including the 17 education secretaries,community leaders and officials of the PTA in the state (NAN)
