No fewer than 2,295 teachers were killed in the North East between 2009 – 2022, while over 19,000 others have been displaced, and 910 schools damaged due to the conflict therein, Registrar of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye,has said
Ajiboye,who disclosed this while delivering a paper at the 2022 National Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Union of Teacher, NUT, in Ibadan, further stated that over 1,500 schools were forced to close due to insurgency and more than 600,000 children have lost access to education.
Speaking on impact of attacks on schools, he noted that “attacks on education create a ripple effect and set in motion a range of negative impacts 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.”
He said schools used for various military purposes, including to hold and execute captives, and as barracks for insurgents, further contributed to parents’ and students’ fears about the safety of sending their children, and especially their daughters, back to school after the insurgents had departed.
On the effect of insurgency on the country’s economy, he said destruction of school buildings – classrooms, students’ hostels, staff quarters, laboratories, and equipment will require billions of Naira to fix.
“The cost of security expenditure to manage violence and conflict as well as its economic impact, has increased since 2007, almost doubling from $69.3 billion to $132.6 billion in 2019, according to data from the 2021 Economic Value of Peace report by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). Likewise, between June 2011 and March 2020, at least $18.3 million has been paid to kidnappers as ransom, according to a report by SBM Intelligence,” he said.
He added that attacks on schools and terrorism have reduced foreign investment in Nigeria, thereby putting much pressure on our local economy.
He implored the federal government to review its security architecture to address the deteriorating security situation due to terrorism and violent attacks on education.
He advised the federal, state and local education authorities to facilitate the immediate implementation of the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence Free Schools, NPSSVFS, by making budgetary provisions.
According to him,there was need for Federal Government to increase domestic education expenditure of 50 per cent over the next two years as committed at the Global Partnership for Education, GPE, Education Summit.