The United Nations has lamented that in the last academic year, an estimated 1.3 million children were impacted by attacks or abductions in schools in Nigeria.
Consequently, it urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to tackle the security challenges ravaging the country to preserve its posterity.
Specifically, the UN warned that “the collective future of Nigeria is under threat” given rising insecurity and spate of attacks by bandits on schools.
The warning comes against the backdrop of recent coordinated killings and kidnappings of schoolchildren across Kaduna, Kebbi, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara states, leading to the forced closure of schools in these states.
United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon, stated this in a statement on the 2021 International Day to Protect Education from Attack.
“UN condemns attack on schools, calls for more efforts to protect students and ensure uninterrupted teaching and learning. Children are traumatised; parents are scared; teachers and school administrators are afraid; attacks on schools are gradually spreading to areas not known to insurgencies. With education under attack, the collective future of Nigeria is under threat. This must stop now,” Kallon said.
He said whenever teaching and learning is disrupted, the impact on human capital development is enormous as the recovery period always tortuous and longer than the length of the initial disruption.
“Across the North-East region alone, over 600,000 children remain out of school and some 1.1 million need educational support to stay in school. This has all been compounded by the setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
