President Muhammadu Buhari has again promised to end attacks on educational facilities and ensure a safe and enabling learning environment for both staff and students.
President Buhari, represented by his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, said at the fourth International Conference on Safe Schools Declaration with the theme: Ensuring Safe Education for All: From Commitment to Practice, in Abuja, that the incessant attacks and increased activities of terrorists, bandits and general insecurity in schools had exacerbated many factors responsible for the growing number of out-of-school children.
The conference, which was co-hosted by Nigeria, Spain, Norway and Argentina, focused on reviewing the progress being made by member-States in the quest to make schools safer globally.
According to the President, “it is no longer news that at will, bandits, kidnappers and terrorists invade our educational facilities to abduct the learners in large numbers. Some places that have been hit by this menace include Chibok, Dapchi, Buni Yadi, Afaka, Kagora, and Jangebe in Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara states.
“It is disheartening to note that even when the abducted pupils are released, the trauma of the incidents remain long in their minds, hence the plan to have teachers trained on psycho-social support.
“The Nigerian Government is highly committed to prioritising safety in schools to protect investments in the Education sector, which would validate the endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration (an inter-governmental political agreement that outlines a set of commitments to strengthen the protection of education from attacks and restrict the use of schools and universities for military purposes).”