STATE MINISTRIES OF EDUCATION & FCT BRAINSTORM IN ENUGU ON SCHOOLS SECURITY

REPORTER: CHRISTIAN NWANGENE

Enugu State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has canvassed the need for experts in the education sector to focus on building an enduring and formidable security system for Nigerian schools to tackle the prevailing security situations in the country.

He said the call became imperative due to increasing percentage of out of school children occasioned by the rising cases of abductions of school children and teachers in schools by armed bandits.

The Governor, who stated this at the 2021 Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE) Reference Committees Meeting holding in Enugu, said the traumatic experiences resulting from insecurity had created the need to double efforts in coming up with effective strategies in ensuring quality, and affordable education even in the face of threatening challenges.

Represented by the Commissioner for Education, Professor Uche Eze, the Governor noted that parents and learners were unwillingly losing interest in education, given the rate of kidnapping in some states and the socio-economic cost associated with asking for their releases.

He emphased that the choice of the theme of the meeting, “Strengthening of Security and Safety in Nigerian Schools for the Achievement of the Education 2030 Agenda” was apt considering its relevance to the prevailing situation in the country and the need to complement the efforts of various levels of government in stemming the tide.

Governor Ugwuanyi noted that government had put up a mechanism in place using the security agencies, community security outfits, the neighborhood watch groups, and the forest guards, for the safety and security of schools in the area.

The Governor expressed confidence in the forum to come up with better ways students and schools would be better protected.

In a keynote Address, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, represented by the Chairman, Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE), Dr. Ogochukwu Ufoegbune, said the onslaught on schools by bandits and kidnapers in recent times had further pressed Nigeria to the edge in global ranking.

According to the Minister, a survey conducted by UNICEF in 2018 showed that the population of out-of-school children in Nigeria had risen from 10.5million to 13.2 million, which could partly be traced to the increasing rate of insecurity.

Mallam Adamu said records had it that over 1,000 students had been abducted from schools majorly across Northern Nigeria since December, 2020 resulting in more than one million children being forced out of schools.

He also stated that report indicated that since the advent of Boko Haram insurgency and the new wave of insecurity (banditary and kidnapping), over 2,000 teachers had lost their lives while over 19,000 others had been displaced mostly in the North East zone.

“It has been estimated that over 1,000 schools have been destroyed while about 1,500 others have been forced to shut down. The cumulative effective of all these ugly trends border on the shortage of qualified teachers, increase in out-of-school children and uncertainty of parents to provide good education for the children.

“It is a known fact that, insecurity has halted the interventions from national and international NGOs as well as development partners.

“Several states are shutting down boarding schools in violence prone areas.

“The Nigerian Education System is deep into crisis on multiple fronts, including areas of access and quality education,” the Minister lamented.

The Minister urged the Committee to come up with policies that would ensure the security and safety of lives and infrastructure leading to the achievement of the Education 2030 Agenda.

While noting that the Nigerian education system was still recovering from the devastating effects of prolonged school closure as a result of COVID-19, Mallam Adamu stated that if insecurity was added to the nation’s basket of challenges, managing the consequences çould pose great difficulty.

He urged delegates to articulate other strategies or measures Government and other stakeholders could adopt to strengthen security and safety in Nigerian schools.

The event attracted Permanent Secretaries, Directors and senior officers from various states’ ministries of education, including the FCT.