The Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board (RSUBEB) has constituted 12-member School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) at the state and local government levels in a bid to achieve the goal of free education policy and entrench good governance at the school level.
The step is also targeted at achieving high school performance through the provision of basic infrastructure needs of schools in the state through stakeholders’ involvement.
The ExecutiveCchairman of the RSUBEB, Ven Fyneface Akah while inaugurating the SBMCs at the conference hall of the board in Port Harcourt, last Monday, said the SBMCs were integral part in the basic education management which was designed to realize the maxim of “education is the responsibility of all.”
Akah opined that the core mandate of the committees was to collaborate in bringing their inputs and sourcing for funds to help make the schools more comfortable and enhance learning in their various localities.
According to him, the SBMCs’ membership was drawn from communities where schools were domiciled to interface between government and the communities to ensure proper funding, and also ensure that education was well organized in their communities.
He averred that the committees were at liberty to source funds from time-to-time for the management of their schools, but warned that such funds derived must not be an impediment to free education of any child under the RSUBEB education law in the state.
“The SBMCs must ensure that the sourcing of funds must be with the parents, community and philanthropists in their catchment areas. No child or children should be made to suffer or his or her rights to free education impaired. Education is not totally free but parents must fulfill part of their own obligations.
“Education is the responsibility of all, and we must understand it. The SBMC is a structure of basic education that needs to be driven for the realisation of the maxim that ‘education is responsibility for all’ through advocacy. Their responsibility is quite generic and inclusive,” he stated.
Akah warned the committee members not to divert funds generated in this regard for their personal use but for the purpose for which it was approved by the board, saying that they must confront people with objective truth.
He used the opportunity to thank teachers, school heads and junior secondary school principals for their efforts in keeping the school system working before the inception of the present administration in the state, adding that the board would continue to stand on its resolution to achieve positive change in the basic education system in the state.
“Our major concern is to ensure that our schools become functional system. The state government is committed on its free education policy,” he stated.
Earlier in his speech, Director, Social Mobilization in the board, Mr Ogwe Ibe, explained that SBMCs were not committees set up to merely discuss problems, but community bodies which can take actions to make their schools work better.
Ibe listed fund-raising events, grants from corporate organizations and donors, donations from individuals, community funding, SBMC members’ contributions and direct funding from the state government in the form of grant or capital allowance as possible sources of funding for schools.

By: Akujobi Amadi