Bandits and other criminals have displaced thousands of students in parts of the North West and North Central and also disrupted the academic calendar of schools, investigations have shown.
Findings revealed that the bandits who have killed hundreds of people and dislodged an unspecified number of communities have forced many schools to close and thousands of students to remain at home for months, heightening fears of increased out-of-school children.
Checks in frontline states in the two geopolitical zones – Zamfara, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna – revealed that while hundreds of students had been kidnapped for ransom, those in charge of education in the affected states are battling to remain afloat to no avail. Some of them have closed all the schools in their domain while others allow those in “relatively safe locations” to go on with academic activities.
Many primary, secondary and tertiary institutions were affected amid fears that students in other states especially in the South would be ahead of their peers in the North if nothing was done to reverse the trend.
Interruptions of academic activities in the states mentioned are now a source of worry to parents, especially those who do not have the means to relocate their wards to safer places.
Sources said bandits are gradually taking over from Boko Haram who wreaked havoc on education especially in the North East from 2009.
Data released by the UNICEF in 2018 showed that more than 600,000 children have lost access to education due to Boko Haram activities during the time under review.
The report said an estimated 2,295 teachers have been killed and over 19,000 others displaced by the conflict, while more than 1,400 schools have been destroyed, damaged or looted.
However, educationists who spoke to Daily Trust said unlike what transpired in the North East, which attracted global attention, there was little or no attention to the damage being done to education in parts of the North West and North Central.
Scary tales
In Zamfara State, learning has been disrupted after the state government was forced to shut down schools following incessant abductions of students by armed bandits.
In February this year, the bandits kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from a secondary school in the Jangebe community of Talata Mafara Local Government Area of the state, marking the beginning of a ceaseless onslaught on learning and scholarship.
Since then, the state government had ordered the closure of all the 23 boarding schools in the state pending improvement of the security situation.
Students in boarding schools were asked to start attending day schools instead.
Notwithstanding, the relentless armed men escalated their attacks to schools and colleges in the state, with the latest being the abduction of 74 students from Government Secondary School, Kaya in Maradun Local Government Area of the state.
Therefore, Wednesday’s abduction of students from the Kaya community also exposed the vulnerability of day schools in the state especially those located in remote rural communities.
After the Kaya abduction, the state government again announced the closure of all schools, forcing thousands of students to remain at home.
Earlier, the armed criminals had kidnapped about 15 students from the Zamfara College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Bakura Local Government Area who were later released after they spent days in captivity.
Long before the students’ abduction saga, dozens of primary schools in the highly traumatised remote rural communities had been taken over by armed criminals.
The schools were abandoned by the pupils and teachers as the criminals had converted the classrooms into their restrooms.
For instance, a story was told of one primary school in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area where the armed men confronted the headmaster of the school and asked him to close lessons for the day as they intended to sleep in the classrooms.
Without any hesitation and knowing fully the consequences of not carrying out their order, the headmaster immediately closed the school and asked all the pupils to go home.
Daily Trust learnt that scored of armed bandits have been killed in airstrikes after they took shelter in the empty classrooms in the abandoned primary schools across the state.
Apart from this, there were schools affected by a lack of teachers because many had rejected posting to rural schools due to the risk associated with going there to teach. Consequently, the schools were either abandoned or left without enough teaching personnel.
Schools remain closed in Kaduna
Both primary and secondary schools have remained closed in Kaduna State since the government postponed school resumption, which was earlier scheduled for August 9, 2021.
Daily Trust reports that the state government decided to close the schools because of the ongoing military operations against bandits in some parts of the North West and North Central.
A statement jointly signed by the Commissioner of Education, Dr Shehu Muhammad and that of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan said all the schools would remain closed till further notice.
Our correspondent reports that schools in Kaduna had earlier been scheduled to resume for the third term within the first week of August after the expiration of the Sallah break.
However, the state government’s directive has now disrupted the calendar, which was to begin on Monday, August 9 and end on October 15, 2021.
The decision was backed by the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Kaduna State Chapter.
Schools in Kaduna also suffered from attacks by rampaging bandits who abducted students and staff for ransom. Presently, there are about 31 students of Bethel Baptist High School, still in captivity, two months after they were abducted from their school in Chikun LGA.
Many parents in Kaduna were grumbling that their children would once again play catch-up with those in other states as they did in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic led to a total shutdown of the state.
Justina Alberah said: “We feel bad because our children would be left behind when other children are in school but again, they should be safe before anything.”
Abdulmajeed Ismail, an educationist and proprietor said the closure of schools will greatly affect students’ performance in future, pointing out that other schools across the country continued to operate while students from Kaduna State were held back. “Government is killing the education system by allowing bandits to dictate to them when to open or not to open schools,” he said.
He, however, said online classes had been activated to keep the students busy and called on governments to relocate schools in high-security risk communities to safer areas.
Uncertainty in Katsina
Katsina schools are in their first week of a 3-week end of term holiday. Therefore, the measures taken recently by the state government did not directly affect schools’ resumption as there was no official announcement to that effect.
A source close to the state ministry of education, who pleaded for anonymity said, “The truth is that we don’t know what would happen in the few days before the resumption date.
“However, I know that all boarding schools across the state were closed down due to the problems of insecurity. Students of such schools were asked to join the day school closer to them to continue with their education,” he said.
Katsina State had had its share of attacks on schools such as the one on Government Science Senior Secondary School, Kankara, on December 11, 2020, where at least 344 students were kidnapped.
A few days after, about 83 Islamiyya students were intercepted by bandits on their way home from Maulud celebrations in Faskari Local Government Area of the state. They were however rescued on the same day.
Recently, nine Islamiyya school pupils were kidnapped in Sakkai village of Faskari LGA together with one of their teachers while attending evening classes.
Niger redeploys boarding students
Insecurity has disrupted teaching and learning in most boarding schools in Niger State as students were redeployed to day schools in their local governments and communities.
Though no primary school was shut, parents in banditry infested areas lamented fear of possible attacks and had their attention fixed on their children. Many schools had been attacked in recent times.
The affected schools were Government Girls Arabic Science College, Diko; Government Girls Science College, Sabon Wuse; Mamman Kontagora Technical College, Pandogari; Government Secondary School, Allawa; Government Science College, Kagara; Government Secondary School, Wushishi and Government Science College, Izom.
Others were Government Science College, Kutigi; Teachers Professional Institute, Kuta; Government Secondary School, Nasko; and Government Vocational and Technical College, Rijau.
A resident of Kuta, Sani Abubakar told Daily Trust that the Teachers Professional Institute was also moved to Minna due to incessant banditry attacks in the area.
The Commissioner of Education, Hannatu Jibrin Salihu could be reached but the Public Relations Officer of the ministry, Jibrin Usman Kodo, confirmed that most boarding schools have been temporarily shut while students were directed to attend day schools in their immediate communities.
“The boarding schools would only be reopened if the security challenges are addressed,” he said.
We must salvage education – Experts
A Professor at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasiru Idris said keeping students at home will affect them negatively and it will also be a burden on the parents and the society. He said what the students learned before the shutdown of their school might likely escape from their memories.
“My advice is that the schools can resort to e-learning methods just as what was obtained during the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic. By doing so, the children would be occupied while at home and their parents will not have much pressure from them,” he said.
Malam Yusuf, who works in the ministry of education in one of the affected states said the danger was that there was no statistics of the damage done to education in the North West and North Central.
“Nobody will give you the exact number of students and schools affected and this will harm planning,” he said.
An Educationist, Michael Sule, said, “When schools are closed for a long time due to security challenges, the adverse effect include regression of pupils learning as children learn faster than adults but they forget fast what they learnt if they stay too long at home.
“Closure also affects the school calendar and programmes. The children grow every day and so, we must not be delaying their learning programmes.
“Keeping children at home for too long makes them lose focus on education and they would start making bad friends and going into crime,” he said.
He advised the government to boost e-learning and remote learning through mass media especially radio and television to make it accessible to children at home.
The above article originally appeared in Daily Trust, https://dailytrust.com/many-schools-shut-as-insecurity-disrupts-learning-in-4-states