The Executive Chairman, Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board, (RSUBEB)Ven. Dr Fyneface Akah, has said that the substantial part of the Federal Government’s intervention fund would used to develop schools in rural areas which, according to him is in line with the focus of the state.
Akah who disclosed this to Aviation Correspondents at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa last Tuesday, said schools in the rural areas had been grossly neglected against their urban counterparts.
“70 per cent of the Federal Government Intervention fund is being applied back to schools in the rural communities, and 175 schools are benefiting from this. The fund is also used to for the supply of ICT and sickbay equipment as well as teachers for the rural schools.
“Monitoring is a key aspect for the UBE, and there must be critical monitoring, if quality work must be done by the contractors, we don’t want substandard work.
“We have set in place a monitoring team with a chairman apart from the supervisors who are on daily basis monitoring the projects and reporting to the chairman the level of progress made.
“As long as the projects last, the monitoring  must be continuous, and dilapidation of classrooms are more pronounced in the rural areas, and this is where the intervention fund is being applied to,” the chairman said. He said that monitoring of projects is of great essence to the UBE board and that the UBEC master plan must be followed strictly, to ensure that contractors do not deviate from the master plan.

Corlins Walter