The authorities must go all out to ensure that children learn in protected environment
It the 2022 National Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Union of Teachers last week, the Chief Executive of Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Josiah Ajiboye, painted the ruinous impact of the 13-year-old insurgency on education in the Northeast. He revealed that repeated attacks on schools by Boko Haram and other terror affiliates have claimed the lives of more than 2,295 teachers while about 19,000 others were displaced between 2009 and 2022. Boko Haram, whose underpinning philosophy is “western education is sinful,” also led the destruction or forced closure of some 1500 schools while more than 600,000 children have lost access to education due to the armed conflict.
The killings, abductions of staff and students and the destruction of school structures have impacted on students’ enrolment and attendance, besides creating classrooms without teachers in many northern states.
It all started with the 25th February 2014 brutal attacks on Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State. It was designed to instill fear in the minds of children and their teachers and to discourage the parents from sending their wards to school. On that tragic night, no fewer than 51 students were murdered. Attacks on other schools were to follow across many states. Thousands of boys and girls abducted from several schools, particularly at the peak of the conflict, were used as suicide bombers, while the girls were also subjected to all kinds of violence, including forced “marriages” and sexual violence.
In 2018, some criminal gangs abducted 108 schoolgirls from Dapchi before most were eventually returned after a controversial deal in which a Christian girl (Leah Sharibu) was left behind reportedly on account of her faith. Last year, gunmen killed three people at the College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Bakura, Zamfara State, and kidnapped 15 students and four staff. In December 2020, motorbike-riding bandits attacked Government Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State to ferry away about 300 students. Some weeks later, they also snatched pupils and a teacher of an Islamic seminary heading home after school in the same state. In February last year, a school pupil was killed, and 27 others were abducted by armed men from their school in Kagara, Niger State.
The list of these atrocities is almost endless and responsible for why many parents would rather keep their children out of school. “Attacks on education create a ripple effect and set in motion a range of negative impacts,” said Ajiboye, “such as loss of education, early marriage, early pregnancy, and stigma associated with sexual violence and children born from rape, all of which can dramatically affect female students’ futures.” Indeed, Manuel Fotaine, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) director for Emergency Programmes has long noted that when schools are under repeated attacks and students become targets “not only are their lives shattered, but the future of the nation is also stolen.”
The spate of violence has prompted many to look out for ways of safeguarding students and teachers from physical threats and generally making the schools safe for study. The Safe Schools Initiative launched in 2014 after the Chibok kidnap was meant to counter the growing attacks on the right to education and to build community security groups to promote safe zones for education, consisting of teachers, parents, police and community leaders. Endorsed by the federal government in May 2015, the Safe School Initiative, with the support of national and international organisations, has developed a number of measures to rebuild schools and provide improved security for schools, particularly in the northeast. But it is unclear how many schools have benefitted and how effective the measures are.
While we must commend our military for the relative improvement in security, all indicators suggest the threat is not about to flag as many schools are located in rural areas, making them easy targets. Last week, the TRCN boss called for the full implementation of the Safe Schools guidelines. To the extent that the protection of the child and the promotion of their well-being are closely linked to development and well-being of the society, the authorities must heed the call.
