Olusegun Ajiboye, Registrar/Chief executive, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), has urged the Federal Government to review security architecture to address the “deteriorating situation because of its effect on education.”
Ajiboye, a professor, while speaking at the NUT National Delegates Conference, said the world is grappling “with terrorism which has dealt a serious blow on every facet of the economy including education.”
While urging government to implement fully the safe schools declaration guidelines endorsed by Nigeria in 2015 and ratified by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, he disclosed that over 1,500 schools have been forced to close in North Eastern Nigeria as a result of terrorism and insurgency.
He also disclosed that over 910 schools have either been damaged or destroyed while 2, 295 teachers have been killed in the northeast between 2009 and 2022.
Ajiboye, who lamented that over 600,000 have lost access to education stated that the “attacks on education create a ripple effect, setting in motion range of negative impacts such as loss of education, early marriage, early pregnancy, and stigma associated with sexual violence and children’s born from rape all of which can dramatically affect female students futures.”
Read also: How Nigeria, others can avoid chronic food insecurity – IMF
While saying that insurgency has reduced foreign investment putting local economy on pressure, the Registrar hinted that 1.2million people require emergency education in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
According to him, “The presence of armed forces in and near schools can make it a target of retaliatory attacks increasing the risk to children and teachers as well as the likelihood that education will be disrupted.”
Not minding the insecurity challenge, the TRCN boss promised to continue to champion the professionalism and welfare of Nigerian teachers.
