Eight northern states have shut down at least 4,034 schools since bandits abducted over 300 schoolboys from Katsina three months ago, investigations by 21st Century Chronicle have shown.
The December 11 kidnapping of students from Government Science School Kankara, the first mass students’ abduction outside the Boko Haram-plagued northeast, spread fears across the country, fueling large scale shutdowns of public schools in northern states.
These shutdowns started barely two months after schools across the country resumed from the coronavirus-imposed seven -month break, which massively disrupted the schools calendar.
Nearly 1,200 students were taken away from their schools across six states in the last seven years, starting with the infamous abductions of 276 girls from Chibok in Borno state on February 15, 2014, triggering #BringBackOurGirls global outrage.
Experts said the disruptions caused by the shutdowns is jeopardizing the future of the students even though most of the closure lasted between weeks, and in some cases, two months.
This is apart from further destabilization of the crisis -ridden education sector at a time majority of the states are struggling to shore up their school enrollment by slashing the two-digit out-of-schools’ figures, boast girl-child education, improve financing and provide infrastructure.
Data from UNESCO shows that most of the 13 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are believed to be from the north.
For over a decade now, the north is battling an insurgency launched by Boko Haram – a terror group that variously attacked schools and abducted students – as a way of entrenching its anti-western education
murderous ideology.
On May 29, 2015, Nigeria endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD), expressing commitments to ensuring the protection and continuation of education in conflict situations.
3,475 schools shut within 6 days
21st Century Chronicle findings revealed that days after the abduction of 317 schoolboys from Kankara, at least six states including Katsina, had shut down 3,475 schools.
Within six days after the abduction, Katsina shut its 38 boarding schools, Zamfara 10, Sokoto 16, Kano 71 and four health institutes, Benue 25, and Jigawa 3,315 public schools.
A day after the Kankara attack, Katsina Governor Aminu Masari ordered the closure of 38 boarding schools across the state over fears of another bout of students’ abduction.
On December 15, Zamfara state commissioner for education, Ibrahim Abdullahi, announced the closure of 10 boarding schools that share borders with Katsina, Kaduna, and Sokoto, saying “We will not want what happened in Katsina to happen in Zamfara State.”
Like Zamfara, Jigawa state government also announced the closure of all schools on December 15. The acting permanent secretary, ministry of education, science and technology, Rabiu Adamu, said the closure
“is with immediate effect.”
Findings by our reporter revealed that Jigawa has a total of 3,315 public schools, comprising 254 senior secondary, 571 junior secondary and 2,490 primary schools.
On December 16, Kano state government, through its commissioner for education, Muhammad Sanusi Kiru, announced the closure of all the 71 boarding schools, comprising 41 regular schools, 15 sciences secondary and 15 boarding primary schools.
Sokoto state government, after its 17th security council meeting on December 17, also ordered the closure of 16 boarding schools along its borderlines.
Benue is the only state outside the northwest to shut down its boarding schools in reaction to the Kankara abduction.
On December 17, Governor Samuel Ortom during a visit to the Maximum-Security Custodian Centre (MSCC) in Makurdi, said he had ordered the state commissioner for education, Dennis Ityavyar, to ensure the immediate closure of all the 25 boarding schools in the state to avert a repeat of the Kankara incident.
More shutdowns after Kagara and Jangebe abductions
On February 17, about two months after the Kankara abduction, bandits attacked Government Science College Kagara in Niger state, abducting 27 students and 12 staff members and their families, after killing a
student.
This tragedy forced Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello to shut four boarding schools after Kagara college, across Rafi, Shiroro and Mashegu local governments, the epicentres of banditry in the state.
On February 26, less than two weeks after the Kagara incident, bandits again raided Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe in Talata Mafara local government of Zamfara, abducting 276 girls, triggering
another round of mass schools closure.
In his reaction, Governor Muhammed Bello Matawalle shut down all the 23 boarding schools in the state.
On February 26, his counterpart in Kano, Abdullahi Ganduje, who earlier shutdown 75 schools, again directed the shutting down of 16 boarding schools as a precautionary measure.
On February 28, Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, announced the closure of all the 46 boarding schools in the state over security concerns.
Buni’s decision is reminiscent of the events of February 18, 2018, when Boko Haram insurgents stormed Dapchi, and abducted 110 schoolgirls, with some of them still in captivity.
On March 11, 2021, Governor Bello announced the closure of all the 496 public secondary schools in Niger state over threats of kidnapping.
The Niger schools comprise 21 senior secondary, 202 junior secondary, and 273 combined junior and secondary schools.
Shutdowns will fuel citizens distrust, poor enrollment – Expert
The schools’ shutdown will to a greater extent affect school enrollment, particularly of the girl-child, Mr Laban Onisimus, education lead at the Plan International Nigeria, told 21st Century Chronicle.
He said it would fuel “citizens lack of trust in the ability of the government to protect children while in school, resulting in withdrawal of children from schools thereby increasing the number of out- of- school children.
“Time lost in terms of learning for the students cannot be redeemed thereby labeling the region as an educational disadvantaged region.”
Mr Onisimus said the “gender gap in school attendance in the north is already wide, law female enrolment and retention rates will widen the gender gap, while higher female dropout rates risk increasing child marriage and early pregnancy, limiting many girls’ options.”
