By Felix Khanoba
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, says a total of 1,147 communities across the country will benefit from the Commission’s special intervention projects under the School Base Management Committee (SBMC).
Bobboyi made this known at the flag-off (Southern phase) of the 2019 SBMC-School Improvement Programme held recently in Calabar.
A statement signed by UBEC’s Head of Public Relations and Protocol, David Apeh, which was obtained by The AUTHORITY in Abuja on Tuesday, said Bobboyi harped on the need to leverage on SBMC as a mechanism for increased community participation in education development.
The UBEC boss said the flag-off activities were crucial to successful project implementation, which are deliberately executed with a view to enhancing project implementers capacity to plan, supervise and deliver on each project components.
“I am glad to announce for 2019 SBMC-SIP 1,147 communities will benefit from the projects, ranging from special grant of five million each to macro and micro grant of two million and three fifty thousand respectively.” he said.
According to him, it was also important to note that the stakeholders in the aforementioned 1,147 schools and communities have committed themselves not less than 10 per cent of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) contribution as counterpart funding for the smooth implementation of all the designated 2019 project.
The Executive Secretary noted that all the Southern states have a total of 527 SBMC-SIP projects in the 2019 funding arrangement, adding that 31 of these projects are in special case category, 170 micro projects and 340 in the micro category.
Declaring the programme open, the Governor of Cross River state, Ben Ayade, charged UBEC management to find a way to work towards addressing the failures of the present generation.
The governor also advocated for the retraining of teachers.
