The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, in Benue State on Thursday said it had set aside the sum of N7.6 billion as intervention fund for the reconstruction of dilapidated primary school structures in the state.

The chairman of the basic education board, Philip Tachin, disclosed this in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, following governor Samuel Ortom’s approval of over N3 billion counterpart funding for UBEC projects in the state.

Tachin promised to stamp out systemic corruption in the basic education sub-sector, assuring that the funds would be judiciously used for the rebuilding of schools destroyed by Fulani herdsmen in the wake of clashes in 2014.

The state education board’s zonal coordinator, John Agbo, said that it had convened a meeting with education managers and secretaries from the 23 local government areas to gather facts on the state of disrepair at various schools.

Primary school teachers in Benue State have been on strike in the eight months in protest of the collapsing state of the basic education sector in the state.

Although former governor of the state, Gabriel Suswam, attempted some renovation works, there are indication that a lot needs to be done by the Ortom administration to upgrade primary schools and improve the standard of learning of school children in state.