Ekiti awards contracts for 250 school renovation

The Ekiti State Government has awarded contracts for the renovation of over 250 projects in public schools across the state under the 2024 Universal Basic Education Commission/State Universal Basic Education Board intervention programme.

Chairman of SUBEB, Prof. Femi Akinwumi, disclosed this in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Saturday, assuring that contractors would soon mobilise to sites.

He said the projects included several thousand pieces of school furniture, stressing that the government remained committed to improving learning environments.

Akinwumi was reacting to a viral video showing pupils of St. Westley Primary School, Omuo-Ekiti, sitting in a classroom block whose roof had been blown off by a rainstorm.

He explained that the building had already been listed for renovation and marked under the 2024 UBEC/SUBEB programme, and also proposed to UBEC under the 2025 Direct Intervention Funding scheme.

The issue of the damaged building has received the government’s intervention. Pupils and teachers had been evacuated from the affected building to new classrooms within the school since the last academic session,” he said.

He, however, said the board was investigating why pupils were still seen in the abandoned structure. “Whoever is found culpable will be sanctioned,” he warned.

Akinwumi added that the government had introduced stronger roofing materials in school projects to curb the impact of natural disasters.

“Rainstorm is a natural occurrence. The state government has taken proactive steps to safeguard school buildings from the effects of rainstorms by enforcing the use of high-gauge aluminium roofing sheets in SUBEB buildings in the past four years. This has drastically reduced the number of school buildings affected in recent years,” he said.

Cupped from punch.