Forty-five public primary schools in Lagos State will get new classroom blocks, rehabilitated classrooms, fences and potable water under the 2018 Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB) Action Plan which would be implemented in the next eight months. This is not counting the number of schools expected to get teacher/pupil furniture and sporting equipment under the N2.947 billion allocated to Lagos by the UBEC. How well will this Action Plan be implemented? Some volunteers in host communities of public primary schools are preparing to monitor the projects, reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE.
The Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LSUBEB) has opened bids for the Universal Basic Education (UBE) projects for the year 2018.
It has about N2.947b of funds provided by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to spend on its approved Action Plan for the year.
The plan covers construction of schools, rehabilitation of schools, construction of fences, provision of classroom/teachers’ furniture; provision of sports equipment; provision of water and sanitary equipment and the like.
The UBE fund is derived from two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government. It is disbursed to states to fund basic education (primary and junior secondary levels).
States are required to provide 50 per cent of the cost of its Action Plan – which is then matched by the Federal Government before they can access the funds.
Of the total in its coffers for the 2018 Action Plan, LSUBEB plans to spend N1.3 billion on construction of schools; N395.1 million on perimeter fencing; N294.72million on classroom furniture; N88.4 million on water and sanitation; N29.9 million on sports development; N655.2 million on rehabilitation; N58.9 million on Agricultural Education; N58.9 million in Quality Assurance Monitoring; and N58.9 million on administration and consultancy services.
The plan in action
Last month, LSUBEB published a call for bids for the construction of blocks of between six and 20 classrooms in 12 schools; rehabilitation of school structures in eight schools; construction perimeter fences in 12 schools; provision of 9,584 pupil furniture and 580 teacher furniture; and provision of potable water in 13 schools.
However, its approved Action Plan from UBEC also covers provision of crop/poultry/snailery farming education, etc in Mushin and Badagry Local Government Education Authorities (LGEA); as well as provision of table tennis/scrabble/chess/monopoly boards and footballs to schools across the 20 LGEAs of the state.
While construction of classrooms projects is to be completed between four and eight months, rehabilitation and water projects are expected to be completed between one and three months.
The supply projects are expected to be completed between one (for sports equipment) and four months (for furniture).
Challenges and need for project monitors
Though academics, unions, educationists, employers use any available platform to lament that the government does not spend enough on education, however, there is usually little accountability about the funds provided.
A former top level official in LSUBEB who did not wish to be named, said there were many challenges in the process of implementation that could make projects drag beyond stipulated completion periods.
The source said before 2018, the board did not have funds for administrative charges that cropped up in the process of implementation – like advertisement of the call for bids etc – and so had to find funds from other sources, which caused delayes.
The source also noted that the 2018 Action Plan ought to have been implemented but for delays that could have been political.
“We ought to have implemented the plan before Ambode left but were told by UBEC not to do it.
A new government came in and the delay continued for a long time till now that it is being implemented.
Even after contracts are awarded, the source said the contractors have to complete procedure before mobilising to site.
“They have to do bonds and get necessary papers with the bank. It is then you give mobilisation funds for them to start,” the source said.
When they get to site, the source said the project may be delayed by host communities demanding for kick-backs.
“In some communities, hoodlums will tell the contractor he cannot work except he settles them. If it a new school, the community people will say it is their land and refuse to let the contractor work. Sometimes it is the Baale that disturbs the contractor.
Sometimes, hoodlums will steal the properties of the contractors. All these will stall the project and delay the process,” he said.
The source also noted that some contractors sell the contracts to others after collecting the mobilisation funds.
“Another problem is when contractors get contracts some of them would transfer the contract to another person. But the board would pay the funds to the initial contractor documented with it.
Then some of such contractors after collecting money would be stingy and not give the contractor on ground the money to implement the project,” the source said.
Head Teachers are not left out of the corruption cycle as the source noted that they sometimes demanded bribes from contractors before implementation or supply of projects.
“We have seen cases where head teachers will tell us that the project was not okay even when the engineers have inspected and said it was okay because the contractor did not give them bribes so they want to delay the person from collecting his money,” the source said.
Regarding contractors defaulting or not implementing contracts, The Nation learnt from another source that the reason was that some of the contractors who default were politicians.
Sometimes, projects are also delayed because of the topography.
“Between you and me, many of them are politicians so a few will not cooperate and do the needful.
However, if members of the various communities that host public schools are mobilised to monitor SUBEB projects, Mrs. Funso Owasonoye, Executive Director, Human Development Initiative (HDI), said there would be greater accountability.
Penultimate week, the HDI, a Non-Governmental organisation (NGO) that advocates for and monitors judicious use of UBE funds gathered volunteers from various local communities around the state to learn about the projects coming near them and how to monitor their implementation.
With the support of Mac Arthur Foundation, the NGO trained over 50 monitors from various LGEAs for two days in Lagos to monitor the implementation of the 2018 Action Plans in their localities.
They were exposed to things to look out in ideal constructions and given checklist (monitoring tool) to document what they see.
They were also taught how to relate with people they meet in the course of the monitoring exercise and drew up a code of conduct document to guide their activities on the field.
Mrs. Owasonoye said now that the volunteers were aware about projects domiciled in their communities and how to assess their implementation.
“What the training has achieved is awareness. Most for those in the community level were not aware of projects funded by UBE in their community talk less that they can be empowered to monitor it,” she said.
Owasanoye said apart from those trained by HDI, every member of the community that hosts a school should be interested in how UBE projects are implemented.
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Pastor Oluwatoyin Ojejinmi was one of the monitors trained by HDI.
In an interview with The Nation, she said when she got involved in monitoring schools in Surulere in 2017, she discovered that contractors do many sharp practices.
Pastor Ojejinmi, who leads HDI monitors in Surulere, said: “As a person I never knew that people could supply bad furniture; I never thought of anybody building substandard structures but during this monitoring programme, we saw in some schools the furniture’s after given just mere push, crumbled.
In fact a Vice Principal fell at Itolo Girls Grammar Scohol, Surulere while trying to sit down on one of the chairs.
“The same day we went there and she called us to see the chair that she actually fell from. All other ones were substandard and I wondered why anybody would take that kind of money and still produce rubbish.
“I have been to schools where they don’t have chairs at all. I think Baptist primary school; the principal had to tell the parents to provide chairs so if you get to the class you see some big, some small, different shape and size which makes a class look unorganised.
“This monitoring thing has opened our eyes to see a lot and made us to be determined to do more.”
On her part, another monitor resident in Ibeju-Lekki, Mrs Funmilola Sojinu, said she started monitoring schools when she enrolled her nephew in a public school in her area.
With her activities in the area, she said she was noticed by HDI and was able to provide evidence of schools in need in her area. As a result, four schools in the area got listed in the 2018 Action Plan.
The retired banker said: “As for the impact, like ibeju lekki, they do not know what is happening. The LGEA was not giving them any information.
“In 2015 Ibeju Lekki was there (in the Action Plan) but nothing was done. So by 2017 the things of 2015 were brought.
So we were reporting to the HDI. After sometime I was asked to take pictures of the schools that I visited and I now went there to take pictures.
I took the front view, I took the back view. By the time we were there for the launching at Alausa, it was my own local government that was shown on the billboard for the whole world to see.
That was how Ibeju lekki became the focus of Lagos State; that we in dire need of help. By the time they talked about intervention for 10 local governments, my own Ibeju Lekki got projects in four schools with serious cases.”
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