Contractors in the Amhara Regional State are riled over the requirement criteria for the construction of schools in the region claiming exclusion from for bids to build 63 schools by the Ministry of Education.

The Ministry had requested all regional states to submit a list with 25 potential grade three and above contractors to build 50 models and 13 boarding schools. Following this, the Amahara Region Construction Contractors Association penned a letter to the Ministry on behalf of the lower-grade contractors discontent over the decision.

The revised regulation of Construction Certification has seven grades in accordance with the professionals and staff profile they have, the equipment they possess which is the cash capital and material worth and their experience in projects.

Grade-one construction companies are expected to register over 350 million Br of annual turnover, grade-two contractors 300 million Br and 140 million Br for Grade Three constructors.

The project is expected to cost over 100 million Br while the buildings are anticipated to be the ideal model structure for construction to come.

The boarding schools are going to be high schools for selected students across the country. The schools are expected to build relationships between students from different parts and produce highly intelligent students in the country.

In the boarding schools, the classrooms are expected to be equipped with various technologies that are expected to facilitate smart education.

The selection criteria are specified to grade one to three contractors so the association complained about the inclusiveness of the lower-grade association members. Muluken Bitew, the association president and Level-2 contractor himself, said these specifications are not fair for the other low-grade association members.

"The inflation and the northern conflict pushed the lower-level contractors out of work," he told Fortune.

Dividing the work into different contractors will be fair for participating every contractor, he suggested. The association has a total of 560 members out of them 50-100 are from the higher level which is 1-3. The association wrote a letter of complaint to the Ministry of Education carbon copying the Amahra City Administration Office and the Amhara Urban and Infrastructure Bureau to reconsider the specifications.

According to the letter the association wrote on July 4 and signed by the association president selected 45 contractors from levels 1-5 for the rehabilitation of 45 conflict-affected schools by conflict as per the plan of the Ministry to rehabilitate 50 schools in Amhara and Afar regional states and the association is asking the ministry to consider the same grade contractors for the coming school project too.

The letter also asks the ministry to rethink the criteria and let the schools be built jointly rather than giving it all to only one contractor.