A two-day intensive media tour of ongoing construction, reconstruction and renovation works in 63 public schools across Abia State has successfully ended.
The exercise, which took place on Wednesday 3 September and Friday 5 September, saw journalists split into three groups to cover projects spread across rural and urban areas in the three senatorial zones of the State.
Addressing Journalists on who called on him at the conclusion of the tour on Friday, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Elder Goodluck Ubochi, thanked the Newsmen for their efforts and described the exercise as the best way of properly informing the public about the State Government’s school redevelopment initiatives.
The commissioner who stressed that the State Government has nothing to hide as the Governor Alex Otti-led Abia State Government is a government rooted in transparency and accountability to the people said,
“I am convinced that the best approach will be for the gentlemen of the press to go around, see things for themselves and tell the public the true position of things.
“I want to believe that you’ve seen these things by yourselves. So, that’s just what we are doing and hopefully, even now, more locations are being mapped out outside the 63 you’ve seen. More are being mapped out because we’ve already gotten the approval in principle,” Elder Ubochi disclosed.
Speaking further, Elder Ubochi assured that a reasonable number of the schools currently undergoing construction and reconstruction would be completed before the resumption of schools later this month.
He explained that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education had applied to retrofit 221 schools across the State but mapped out 53 schools initially and later increased it to 63 schools in the first phase.
“We had applied for 221 schools across the 17 LGAs to attend to, under our renovation and retrofitting of schools initiative. The initial plan was to address 221 schools, 10 primary schools from each LGA, and 3 secondary schools from each LGA, making it 13 for each LGA.
“We started by picking the ones that have lighter activity. We initially mapped out 51 schools to be addressed with direct labour. We decided to increase as the work progressed.
“At the moment, we have about 63 locations where different activities are ongoing in our public schools.
“I know that most of those schools are not yet completed, but we are making efforts to see that a reasonable number will be completed before the schools resume on the 22nd of September.
“I’m sure, we ought to be satisfied with the level of progress being made in each of those locations. We are doing this by direct labour and we have our reasons for that,” Elder Ubochi stated.
Elder Ubochi further stated that lighting up the school environment is also a major project of the Ministry, adding that he is collaborating with the Ministry of Power and Public Utilities to make sure that those schools are lit up.
He equally informed them that the government has plans to provide security in the schools when completed.
