The federal government has earmarked N47.5 billion for the first phase of the upgrade of 50 selected senior secondary schools across the country.

According to NAN report, Iyela Ajayi, the executive secretary of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), spoke on Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Government Science Secondary School (GSSC) in Koton Karfe, Kogi state.

Ajayi said the GSSC Koton Karfe is the only school in Kogi State to benefit from the first phase of the intervention.

He said the federal intervention for the first phase will cost about N47.5 billion and will cover 50 schools.

Ajayi urged other schools to exercise patience as they would be considered in the next phase.

He urged school principals to support the contractors handling the project, especially in safeguarding the facilities on the ground.

The executive secretary asked contractors to implement the exact quality in the contract agreement to avert cases of building collapse.

Maimuna Umar, the director of the physical planning unit at NSSEC, said the commission would deliver four new buildings to GSSC Koton Karfe to enable effective learning.

He said the four buildings would house six blocks of classrooms, an administrative block, a laboratory building, ICT, and an e-library.

Yunusa Dauda, the principal of GSSC, said the initiative would give a facelift to the school which had been abandoned for two decades.

First Man Industries Link Limited, the contractor handling the project, pledged to work with the quality specifications of the project.