Securing Nigeria’s Schools

A safe learning environment helps children gain the necessary skills, values, and knowledge to sustain a nation. As children grow up, they become the workforce that drives the economy. Their education, training, and experiences will determine the productivity and competitiveness of the country in the global market. Healthy, well-educated children are more likely to contribute positively to society as adults. Such is the importance of children’s education, and for Nigeria to be a prosperous nation in the future, it needs to provide safer learning environments. However, the country’s schools have not been safe from the onslaught of terrorists and bandits who seek to disrupt Nigeria’s children’s future by abducting them.

The abduction of children from schools has become an increasingly worrisome trend over the last decade. According to the International Center for Investigative Reporting, between 2014 and March 2024, over 1000 schoolchildren were abducted from their various schools. The past three administrations have witnessed kidnappers of school children generate millions in ransom, creating fears in the hearts of parents and children. The kidnapping of school children that gained international notoriety happened in 2014. In April 2014, Boko Haram stormed into a dormitory school for girls in a remote town called Chibok, located in Borno state and kidnapped 276 girls within the age range of 16-18. This kidnapping incident led to a chain of events that terrorised Nigeria’s educational system. Four years after the Chibok girls incident, another kidnapping of schoolchildren took place. In 2018, 110 students were forcefully taken from their school by the Islamist terrorist group known as Boko Haram. Likewise, in 2020, there were two abductions. On Friday, December 11, gunmen took more than 300 schoolboys at a Government Secondary school in Kankara, Katsina state. Shortly after that, on December 19, gunmen captured more than 80 pupils of an Islamic school in the same Katsina state, though the pupils were rescued swiftly by security forces after a fierce gun battle. Subsequent years have seen many more students taken captive from their schools. The most recent abduction of children happened on March 7 when gunmen stormed a government-owned school in Kuriga town, Kaduna state and kidnapped at least 287 students.

These events highlight the intense grip insecurity has on Nigeria’s educational system. Year after year, children are left to defend themselves and their right to education. As the abduction of school children becomes an all-too-common phenomenon, schools that have experienced kidnapping of children or schools that could be potential targets for bandits are shut down and remain shut. The abduction of schoolchildren significantly exacerbates the problematic challenge of out-of-school children in Nigeria. According to UNICEF, one in three children are out of school. UNICEF further stated that at the primary level, there are 10.2 million out-of-school children. At the secondary school level, there are 8.1 million children who are out of school, making up 18.2 million children who have dropped out of school. School abduction also has a psychological effect on children and negatively affects social cohesion. A report showed that the kidnapping of school children by bandits creates frequent fear. In this report, more than half (60%) agreed that academic performance is negatively affected. The abduction of children from schools threatens social cohesion and bonding. As it becomes frequent, parents may begin to lose trust in the educational system and, out of fear, may withdraw their children from schools, reducing the chances of learning academically and socially. Another lurking danger of the abduction of school children is the potential for more insecurity in the future.

Education has many benefits, and one of its most significant benefits is the improvement of the country’s Human Development Index (HDI). As the proportion of educated workers increases, so does the productivity of a country’s economy. This happens because workers have the literacy and critical thinking skills to carry out complex tasks. Education significantly helps reduce poverty, leading to low crime rates. According to the World Bank, an additional year of schooling leads to a 10 per cent increase in earnings. Education is a suitable mechanism for enhancing social cohesion and nation-building and produces numerous externalities such as productivity spillovers, crime reduction and citizenship. When a nation does not educate its children, it leads to higher rates of poverty and socio-economic challenges, which may cause people to turn to illegal means for survival. Business Insider Africa states Nigeria’s crime rate is 66.1 per cent, ranking 2^nd among the top 10 African countries with the highest crime rates. Nigeria has myriads of issues, and the problem of an insecure learning environment threatens to compound further these challenges.

The government of Nigeria have made some efforts to curb the issue of school abductions. In response to the Chibok girls’ abduction, the Nigerian government, in partnership with Nigerian business leaders, media, civil societies, youths, parents, and teachers, established the Safe Schools initiative. It aimed at reaching more than 500 schools across the Northern states of Nigeria with a $10 million fund pledged by a coalition of Nigerian leaders. The government in 2021 adopted the National policy Safe, Security and Violence Free Schools to strengthen the capabilities of security agents, improve school security and ensure that children displaced by conflict and crisis can continue education. However, its implementation remains unclear, and it must take sufficient steps to guarantee a safe learning environment for children. One of the things they can do is significantly strengthen security infrastructure, especially in remote schools. The government should work with various stakeholders to improve coordination. This can be done by improving technology, surveillance, and deployment. A security threat assessment will ensure that children do not become victims again. This can be done by evaluating the location of schools, their relationship with their communities, and the state of the infrastructure of their community. Institutions deemed vulnerable to attacks by bandits should be immediately shut down, and children should be relocated through a clear contingency plan to a safer temporal alternative learning centre. The government should partner with stakeholders to create strong community support for parents and their children. Attacks on schools also psychologically affect students, teachers, and communities. The attacks and threat of attacks leave lasting psychological scars and undermine social cohesion. Building centres and support lines that can cater to the needs of parents and children will build trust over time. State and community policing should be strongly considered as it could lead to a swift prevention of abductions. The root causes of kidnapping for ransom are socio-economic issues such as poverty. To address this, the government must strengthen the economy by investing significantly in quality education to ensure citizens become employable and skilful enough to contribute positively to society. Restructuring the legal framework so perpetrators will be held accountable will prevent any further attempt to abduct schoolchildren. Political will is needed to create a safe learning environment and a promising future.