FCTA Builds Four New Schools, Awards N3.2bn Education Contracts

The FCT Authority has established four new secondary schools to cater for the needs of 5,000 students and ensure that their education is put on sound footing.

The newly established secondary schools, are Government School of Technical College, Kwali; Government Model Secondary School (GMSS) Jikwoyi, Government Day School, Abaji and Government Secondary School, Mpape. The Acting Director of Administration and Finance Educational Secretariat, Mrs. Justina Avong Maimagani, who disclosed this, weekend, also said that approval had been granted for the establishment of additional five schools this year. The proposed schools are GSS Gwarimpa Estate, GSS Gosa, GSS Giri, GSS Paikonkore and GSS Bukpe, Maimagani underlined some of the concrete strides and foundation put in place for the implementation of policies for the rest of the year and beyond.

She said the education secretariat awarded contracts to the tune of N3.2 billion for 278 new projects and are due to be completed within the new few months. Some of the projects included the renovation of Women Education Centre, Sundaba, Kuje, extension of electricity to Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the facilitator of a $15 million model school at Airport Road, plus the supply of beds and mattresses to secondary schools in Abaji and procurement of a 30 KVA generator for the Department of Higher Education, Asokoro among others.

“The sum of N2.7 billion has been paid for completed and ongoing educational projects while 221 classrooms, seven science laboratories and the hostel blocks at Abuja University of Technology, Abaji have been completed, ” she said

Maimagani noted that emphasis was placed on the training of teachers to keep them abreast with newest trends and dynamics of the profession.

“The Universal Basic Education (UBE) board has trained 1,400 teachers in various subjects using the 2014 UBE Teacher Professional Development Training (TPDT) funds. As a way of ensuring improvement in students’ performance in English Language and Mathematics, a capacity building workshop was held for teachers in the six area councils.”

The US Embassy, the acting director added, has trained 50 senior secondary school teachers for the Webinar in English and another 250 were trained by the English Language Teachers Association (ELTA).

Meanwhile, the Acting Director FCT Education Resource Centre, Ibrahim Umar Sanda, has shed light on the circumstances that led to the controversial removal of History from the Nigerian school curriculum.