Kwara State is first among the equals in the north central states for the approach it adopted for the ongoing development school infrastructure, the National APC Media team, who were on a working visit to the state made the verdict yesterday in Ilorin.

The Media organ of the party, led by Dr. Tom Ohikere has been in Kwara for a 3-day assessment of how the state is utilizing the UBEC's grant it received to develop basic schools, after being done with other states in the region.

"We have seen evidential achievements of the UBEC/SUBEB projects spread across the three senatorial districts. We were amazingly stunned by the quality of the projects executed. The construction and reconstruction of blocks of classrooms were massive. The training and retraining of teachers have been given a top-notch priority. And this is aimed at equipping the teachers to give a world class education to our children. Furthermore, the salaries, allowance, leave bonus and arrears, alongside the implementation of promotion of teachers are done at appropriate time.

"This is a legendary and commendable effort, given the fact that you (kwara) operate with an overburdened financial base. From what we observed, your whole approach to infrastructure development in schools is first among the equals in the north central," he said.

The event was well attended by the government functionaries including the deputy Governor Kayode Alabi, the Commissioner for Education, Sa'adatu Modibo Kawu and her counterpart in Finance, Florence Olasumbo Oyeyemi; Chief Whip Kwara House of Assembly, Hon. Ali Amuda; Chairman House Committee on Education, Hon. Baba Saliu Boriya; Hon. Awolola Ayokunnumi; State Secretary for APC, Mustapha Isowo and the Publicity Secretary, Tajudeen Aro; Special Adviser Political Communication, Alhaji Basir Adigun, Special Adviser Political, Abdullateef Alakawa; Special Adviser on Strategy, Saadu Salau; Alahji Gali Alaya, some Permanent Secretaries, representative of Kwara State Coordinator for UBEC, Mr Richard Adeoye among other dignitaries.

He said, they have the mandate as members of the APC News online to carry out the assessment tour of the UBEC/SUBEB projects in the state to authenticate and ascertain their standard, adding this forms a plan to promote the activities, achievements of the APC-led administration at various levels.

Dr. Ohikere observed that the government needs to improve on few areas like the enhancement of the curriculum of the state School for Special Needs; capacity building for the education secretaries in various local governments and the media unit the kwara SUBEB, announcing that they resolved to partner with the International Institute of Journalism to train some selected states on the specified fields.

He added that after a thorough inspection and evaluation they have nominated Katshina and Jigawa from North West; Kwara and Nasarawa from North Central; and Osun and Ogun from South Western zone to be recognized at the National Day of Public Commendation on APC revolution of basic education come in November, this year.

In his remarks, Kwara state Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq appreciated the visiting team for their objective assessment of the projects executed and assured them that actions will be taken to effect some of their recommendations at appropriate time.

AbdulRazaq, who spoke through Governor Kayode Alabi said no effort will be spared in the ongoing strive to reposition the education sector, even as he called on all relevant stakeholders to key in.

He expressed his delight at the dimension the Chairman of the state SUBEB, Professor adaramaja has been taking to place Kwara high and value driven with regard to project execution, citing a number of cases that guided his conviction about his capability to deliver on any given task.

"I am not really surprised at your appointment as Chairman of the Kwara SUBEB and what you have achieved in office, because I know your antecedents as a great performer. I normally tell people that only Nigerians can fix Nigeria and only Kwarans can fix Kwara, as in the case of Adaramaja. And one day, God will pay you back for what you are doing for future generations. I also thank the Ministry of Education for the support they are giving him to succeed," he said.

Adaramaja, for his part, said the team's appraisal and commendation were premised only on the 50 per cent projects executed, which his Agency categorized as phase one, adding that the phase two will kick-start by November and will come out much more award-winning for the state.

The SUBEB Chairman thanked the state government for consistent support and how Governor AbdulRazaq has been committed to achieve great for the education sector in the state.

"What the committee has seen and worked on is just 50 per cent of our projects. We released projects for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. By next month or so, we hope to release projects for 2018 and 2019 by the special grace of God. If 50% of our assessment has made us enter the first 6th, by the time we are done with the remaining 50%, I don't know which position we will reach. I'm sure that Kwara will emerge number one in the country. We still want you to come back in the next four or five months, you will see effective, efficient and prudent utilization of marching grants in Kwara State".

"For this, I thank the Governor for his fatherly role and for being on the neck of the UBEC at all times to realize much, and for particularly supporting the SUBEB to come out flying. We will continue to make you proud," he said.

Atere Abiola Ameenat
Press Secretary
KWSUBEB

Prudence, accountability our watchwords, says Gov AbdulRazaq

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Monday said his administration will prudently manage the grant it received from the UBEC to reposition public basic schools in the state, insisting there must be value for taxpayers' money.

The Governor spoke in Ilorin when he received a delegation of the National APC Media Team from Abuja, led by Dr. Tom Ohikere. The team was on a 3-day visit to Kwara to inspect the ongoing renovation, remodelling and construction projects being undertaken with the UBEC grant, as part of the Federal government's template on accountability.

Represented by the state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Sa'adatu Modibo Kawu, AbdulRazaq lauded the Federal government's assessment initiative and how the UBEC had acceded to his requests on developmental programmes in education sector, following the payment of outstanding debt and the counterpart funds in 2019.

He said a lot is currently being done across public schools in the state, a development he noted will ease teachings and learning for excellent performance of the students.

While thanking the party for picking Kwara as one of the northern states to visit, AbdulRazaq called on the APC Media team to consider other states being controlled by opposition parties, stressing that they also owe Nigerians explanations on how they spent the education development resources they received from the national treasury.

The Governor also applauded the Chairman of Kwara SUBEB, Professor Sheu AbdulRaheem Adaramaja, and his team for making the state proud.

"I trust the Chairman of SUBEB (Prof. Adaramaja). He is very proactive. We are very proud of him and his team. This is an impromptu visit. You are free to go anywhere and see the right things for yourself," he said.

"I am sure that APC controlled states will want to do the right things. Because we all want our party to succeed. I advise that similar monitoring is done to states that are not controlled by APC."

Dr. Ohikere, who described their assessment of the projects so far as excellent, said they are in Kwara to inspect the UBEC projects starting with the ones executed in basic schools for the purpose of achieving quality service delivery, saying they will issue a certificate of credence to the administration after the 3-day exercise.

He said they will also seek to know how the staff and students in the affected schools feel about the projects and the government's response to their welfare needs.

Other members of the visiting team include Olumide Babalola and Lawal Aliyu Ajah respectively.

Professor Adaramaja, for his part, said Kwara had since 2012 ceased to execute UBEC-aided projects because it was blacklisted for the diversion of over #1b UBEC fund for the year 2013, a development he said had hitherto "led us to a horrible situation that Kwarans will never forget in history."

Apart from off-setting the inherited debt of #450 million to UBEC, Adaramaja said, the present government had to pay N7.1 billion 6-year counterpart funds (2014 - 2020) that qualified Kwara to get #14.2 billion in turn, thanking AbdulRazaq for his vision and sincerity about governance.

He also told the delegation that the marching grant the state received, which is meant to develop physical facilities in schools, is already being channelled into construction, renovation and comprehensive remodelling of not less than 605 public schools across the sixteen local governments, in line with the action plan agreed upon by both the state government and UBEC.

He added: "We also have what we call Digital Literacy Centre otherwise called Mini CBT. In each local government area, there are two or three centres selected for digital literacy because we want our children to be computer literate from that level. Those centres will be equipped with computers, solar panels and power generating set to drive e-learning. Then, we have furniture. About 3,175 units of furniture are going to be provided."

According to him, the 6-year school projects are divided into two phases for efficient monitoring.

Phase one, which is ongoing, covers projects for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, while the 2018 and 2019 ones come under second phase and will start by end of November this year, he added.

He hinted that under the phase two 87 schools will be provided with borehole water system including toilet facility to meet sanitation requirements under the sustainable development goal.

Some of the project sites visited include Baboko Community Junior Secondary School, Baboko LGEA primary school; Government Day Secondary School Airport; Madi LGEA school; Ogidi LGEA school; and Asa LGEA school Ote-Oja.

The Team lead, Dr. Ohikere, at the end of the facility tour, gave Kwara a pass mark in terms of quality of work done on the project sites visited, praising the monitoring body of SUBEB for their insistence on proper execution of contracts.

"The quality of work done in the places we have visited and the concept is very strong. They have done excellently well. So what we have seen so far is a judicious and prudent use of the marching grant received by SUBEB in Kwara State. I commend the Governor and Professor Adaramaja led Kwara SUBEB for these," he said.

Other members of the facilities' tour are some principal officers from the Kwara SUBEB, including the Permanent Board member (1) Mashood Ibrahim; Board Secretary, Mrs. Gloria Adebisi; Abdullateef Solagberu (Deputy Director, Admin); and Engr. Abdulsalam Surajudeen, who is the Project manager. 
ATERE ABIOLA AMEENAT
Press secretary kwsubeb

His Excellency Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq commends the Chairman, Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB) Professor Shehu Raheem Adaramaja in his efforts toward effective supervision of ongoing UBEC/SUBEB projects.

The Executive Governor in his letter expresses his profound commendation toward the invaluable efforts of the celebrated Professor for his unrelenting efforts to uplift the standard of basic education in the state.

The Governor expressed his satisfaction with the SUBEB project monitoring and evaluation team for ensuring quality infrastructural development of basic schools in the state.

He therefore encourage the Professor to keep up the good work, adding that safe learning environment and top quality education is a resolute for the pupils of the state.

Another substandard job stopped in AIS ALLA, Isin LGA today Sunday 29/08/2021. The contractor rushed to site because today is Sunday. He was caught putting up DPC BASEMENT FLOOR without hardcore and polymers before the putting concretes.
Upon credible information received from the SBMC team, SUBEB chairman Prof Shehu Adaramaja, appealed to the traditional ruler of Alla, HRH ALALA OF ALLA to move to site and help stop the contractor( ALALA OF ALLA standing in white garment)

The contractor, who personally spoke to SUBEB Chairman on phone, was instructed to remove the fresh concretes and put hardcore.

KWSUBEB monitoring team is expected to be in Alla tomorrow for enforcement.

Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB) projects monitoring team led by the Executive Chairman Prof Shehu Adaramaja has caught another unprofessional contractor for doing shoddy job during their project monitoring exercise to Offa and Oyun LGAs of Kwara State.

The monitoring team discovered that the contractor handling the construction of a block of four (4) Classrooms did not adhere to the specifications given to him by the physical Planning Department of the board with respect to DPC constructed.

KWSUBEB,Director Physical Planning Department, Engr Sirajudeen Abdulsalam issued site instruction to the contractor through the Principal of the school. The contractor who was not on site as at the time of the visit was asked to report to SUBEB headquarters Ilorin for further instructions.

The chairman also expressed displeasure with the Local Government project officer for allowing such shoddy work under his supervision.

KWSUBEB will not condone any form of shoddy construction from any contractor.