Makurdi — Communities in Benue state have been advised to take advantage of the intervention fund provided for educationally disadvantaged states by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC); to initiate and institute self-help projects and provide infrastructural facilities in public primary schools.

The State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Eugene Aliegba, gave the advice in an address at the presentation of bank drafts to 214 school-based communities benefiting from the 2007 first trained disbursement for execution of self-help projects in the state.

Aliegba who expressed appreciation to the Federal Government and UBEC Abuja for disbursing over N96 million to school communities in the state, charged the benefiting communities to ensure judicious application of the funds; warning that any community found to have miss-applied it would be sanctioned.

He noted that the success of the UBE programme was dependent on availability of infrastructure such as classrooms, boreholes, furniture and libraries, and urged the benefiting communities to regard the opportunity provided as a rare one.

The UBEC Zonal Coordinator for Benue and Kogi states, Mrs. Ene Adikwu, who represented the Commission's Executive Secretary, commended communities in the state for embracing the self-help initiative wholeheartedly; and attributed the success of the scheme in the state to massive awareness created by Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (BSUBEB).

Speaking earlier, the interim Chairman of BSUBEB, Dr. Tornge Toranyii said the community self-help scheme had encouraged and sustained community development and participation in basic education service delivery in the state.

The chairman announced that a total of 241 blackboards, 141 classrooms have been constructed, while 46 desks and 6 motorcycles have been provided to the benefiting communities.

He explained that the idea of self-help involving the provision of classroom structures, furniture, boreholes and libraries, was to fast-track the development of education to bridge the imbalance in the disadvantaged states.

He said the involvement of community members who were made to contribute cash, kind and labour to the development of infrastructural facilities in schools was aimed at empowering such communities to take more active roles in the planning and management of their schools.

Each of the benefiting communities went home with N450,000, with the balance to be collected later.