By Philip Yatai

The Connected Development (CODE), a Non Governmental Organisation, on Thursday, began a three-day training for technical and project monitoring officers of Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), on construction management, monitoring and evaluation.

Speaking at the event, CODE’s Chief Executive Officer, Hamzat Lawal, said that the board’s social mobilisation officers would also be trained on human resource management.

Lawal, who was represented by the state’s Team Lead, Zaliha Lawal, said that the training was designed to equip the technical and project monitoring officers with the needed skills to discharge their duties effectively.

According to him, the measure will ensure value for money by ensuring that contractors delivered projects within timeline and according to specifications.

He said that the effort would help the state to attain the Sustainable Development Goals 4, by rolling back the number of out- of- school children.

He said that the effort would also facilitate the provision of quality learning environment for children in the state.

“CODE, with support from MacArthur Foundation in 2017 embarked on a three-year project to track Universal Basic Education spending in Kaduna State.

“In the first year, we tracked $1.5 million dollars, equivalent to N569.57 million appropriated for projects across 23 primary schools in Jema’a, Kudan and Zangon Kataf Local Government Areas of the state.

“The tracking was carried out along with Community Based Associations, School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs), Parents Teachers Association and community leaders.

“We have submitted our observations to SUBEB for appropriate action and enhanced citizen’s engagement in basic education spending through our Follow the Money Radio programme and town hall meetings,” he said.

Lawal said that apart from technical support to the board, CODE had also supported the mainstreaming of SBMCs in basic education programmes and implementation.

He explained that SBMCs had been engaged in routine needs assessments in schools to feed UBE Action Plan of the state and provided data for the committees to effectively monitor projects implementation.

“In the second year, we conducted needs assessment in 609 primary schools and the report submitted to the board and Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai for immediate action,” he said.

He commended the SUBEB Chairman, Malam Abdullahi Sani, for good leadership and providing timely information and called on other states’ SUBEB to emulate Kaduna.

Also, CODE’s state Project Officer, Mr Kingsley Agu said that the training would improve the skills of technical officers responsible for supervising SUBEB projects at local government levels.

“It was also designed to build the capacity of Physical Project Monitoring (PPM) officers on effective planning, implementation and management of construction project.

“This will enable the technical officers and the PPM officers to effectively manage projects, monitor and evaluate construction projects,” Agu said.

The board’s Permanent Member, Physical and Project Monitoring, Mr Mubarak Mohammed thanked the NGO for the partnership to deliver quality education services to the state.

Mohammed said the training would equip the officials with the needed skills to plan, monitor and evaluate projects as part of efforts to ensure quality and timely delivery of education projects.