The Federal Government has earmarked N47.5 billion for the first phase upgrade of 50 selected senior secondary schools across the country.
 
The Executive Secretary, National Senior Secondary Education Commission,  Dr Iyela Ajayi, disclosed this during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Government Science Secondary School, Koton Karfe, Kogi State on Wednesday.
 
Mr Ajayi said the GSSC, Koton Karfe was the only school in Kogi State to benefit from the first phase of the intervention.
 
He said the upgrade was in line with President Bola Tinubu’s renewed promises to Nigerians.
 
He urged other schools to be patient as their schools would also be considered in the next phase.
 
He added, “This is just the first phase, when this phase is completed then we can then report to the President Bola Tinubu and Minister of Education and say we have finished completion of this phase. This will allow them to come and complete this project and we will move onto the next phase. So those schools that are not going to benefit from the first phase, I want them to be patient because after the first phase we will come to them. The intervention for the first phase will cover about 47.5billiin for the 50 schools.’’
 
Mr Ajayi urged the school principal to give maximum support to the contractor handling the project, especially in the area of safeguarding the facilities on ground.
He also charged the contractor to speed up work ready to be delivered for inauguration in the next six months.
 
He also urged the contractor to implement the exact quality in the contract agreement in line with specifications to avert building collapses.
 
On her part, the Director, Physical Planning Unit of the commission, Maimuna Umar, said the commission would deliver four new buildings to the school to enable effective learning.
 
Mr Umar added that the four buildings would house a well furnished six blocks of classrooms, administrative block, laboratory building, ICT and e-library.

Also the school principal, Yunusa Dauda, commended the federal government’s initiative in giving a facelift to the school which had been abandoned for two decades.
 
Mr Dauda added that though learning activities had been ongoing in the school, there was a need for proper infrastructure so the students could learn in a comfortable environment.
 
He stated, “We are happy that the project is coming to us at this time and we promise to give necessary support to the contractor so that the work can be delivered on time.’’
 
Meanwhile, the contractor handling the project and Managing Director, First Man Industries Link Limited, pledged to deliver on the work as specified by the terms and conditions of the contract.
(NAN)