By AMAKA ABAYOMI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

IKEJA—Senate Committee on Education, yesterday, urged the Lagos State Government to urgently pay its 2012 counterpart funding on education, saying “it affects development of education.”

Chairman of the committee, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, made the appeal during a courtesy visit to Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja.

Responding, Governor Babatunde Fashola said the delay was because the state had not exhausted some parts of the fund meant for the previous year.

Fashola added that the style of structure recommended by Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB, also contributed to the delay because some of the buildings could not stand the test of time, adding “many blocks of classroom collapsed after few months of construction.”

According to Fashola, “Due to this collapse cases, the state government decided to design its own style of classroom block. With this design, we will be able to build structures that can stand the test of time.”

The governor, however, advocated for an urgent increase in assistance to UBEB, especially in the supervision of contractors handling school projects.

Earlier, the state chairman of SUBEB, Mrs Gbolahan Daodu, said Lagos paid N1.92 billion as its counterpart funding for education last year.

Daodu said: “Last Friday, we received a letter from the Universal Basic Education, UBE, informing us that we have N852.9 million accredited for the state in the first and second quarter of 2012. And they expect us to pay our counterpart funding from it which is 429.7 million. We are at par with all the states in the federation.”