UBEC charges governors on education sector development

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has charged the states governors to emulate the Prof.
Ben Ayade’s leadership style of initiating policies and programmes that can stimulate growth in the nation’s educational sector.
Acting Director Physical Planning, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Engr.
Sadiq Saad, gave the charge during a working visit to the project site by staff of the Commission stressing that the initiative of the Gov.
Ben Ayade’s led administration with regards to the project was in line with the commission’s vision of encouraging states to establish ideal model schools.
In his words, Sadiq said, “This school is in line with the thinking of the present leadership of the commission that states should have a shift from the usual blocks of class room that they have been known for.
“We are now shifting to model schools, in terms of the facilities, when you come to a school you find everything there, from the classrooms, to other areas.
Just like what we are seeing here in this school, they also have facilities for boarding, the cafeteria, hostels are all here.
This is the type of vision we have for any model school,” He said that the shift from conventional schools to model schools will help with issues as access to schools that can facilitate quality education and equity, all of which he said are issues affecting the educational system in Nigeria.
“Model schools will have a huge impact on our educational system.
I say educational system because the issues in education are not limited to basic education.
We are trying to solve the issue of access, providing access, so that you have more people in the schools, we are also trying to see that we solve the problem of quality education.
“Whatever you are providing in terms of infrastructure down to teachers, they have to be of good quality, and we are also trying to solve the problem of equity.
Just like the location here, we may describe it as being disadvantaged compared to Calabar or some of your urban areas in the state.
Saad lauded Ayade for the stride made by his administration and called on other Governors of 35 states to emulate Prof.
Ben Ayade’s initiative and said “Let me commend the governor for his political will, it’s not all governors that have the political will to embark on such projects.
“Our commission deals with 36 states and FCT so we know, we can tell you the story of every State.
For your State, when it comes to basic education, I think your Governor is trying, the political will is there and he needs every support,” he emphasized.
He said the reason for his visit was to ascertain the level of work done and furbish a report to the commission to enable them assist with the next level of funding.
“When you are handling a project like this there are a lot of challenges, the main challenge in any project is funding, that is why we are here to look at the work, when we go back we will report what we have seen on site, i think that will also give our management a picture of what is going on and see how we can assist with the next level of funding”.
Saad lauded the contractor Jukok International Limited for the quality of work done and called for speedy execution of the project .
Facilities in the British-Canadian International School will include tree-lined walk way of 3.4meters (8ft), 3-Storey building class room blocks of 18 classrooms, male and Female hostels of 40 rooms each, Administration/Assembly building, Clinic, Laboratory, Library, Dining hall, Staff accommodation, Sporting facilities (football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, table tennis and hand ball courts etc) gate house, police post, amongst other.