Attacks on schools put quality education, skilled labour at risk

Continuing attacks on schools in Nigeria put quality education and skilled labour needed in the long run to successfully run the economy, at risk, experts have said.

According to the latest report by SBM Intelligence, 28 attacks on schools have been recorded in Nigeria in six years, from the Chibok girls’ incident on April 4, 2014, in Borno to the recent Barkin Ladin attack on January 12, 2021, in Plateau.

These incidents have disrupted academic activities and led to the closure of some of the affected schools at different times.

The Africa-focused geopolitical research firm further shows in the report that out of the 28 incidents, 23 were penetrated by armed bandits; three were by Islamist terrorists and two by unknown gunmen.

“A total of 1,823 students and teachers were involved in the incidents; 1,799 students and 24 teachers were involved in these incidents. Most of the students involved were secondary school students followed by those in primary schools and the least in tertiary schools,” the report stated.

The report further highlights that Katsina State had the highest number of students’ attacks, followed by Zamfara while FCT had the least and no incidence recorded in Kwara.

On the other hand, the highest number of attacks involving teachers were recorded in Kebbi and closely followed by Zamfara, Yobe, Niger, Kaduna, and FCT.

According to the experts, insecurity not only impedes education when schools are shut down, keeps children and teachers home, it also portends a longer-term danger to the quality of labour force and human capital needed to drive a sustainable economy.

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“Access to education/schools is problematic owing to the insecurity situation. In rural communities in the North, some families might prefer their kids to stay at home. Out-of-school kids would have increased making literacy level to drop,” Damilola Adewale, a Lagos-based economic analyst told BusinessDay

He added that the shutdown of schools also creates unemployment problems for teachers who work in affected schools.

Similarly, Confidence MacHarry, a resident security expert at SBM Intelligence noted that the more students are out of school, the more they are recruited by terrorist groups

In recent years, kidnapping incidents have been on the rise as armed bandits who previously focused on attacking remote communities, now turned their attention on school children leaving a trail of sorrow, tears and blood.

To buttress this point, cost of violence in Nigeria, calculated as security expenditure to manage violence as well as its economic impact, has risen every year 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 the end of March 2020, at least $18.3 million has been paid to kidnappers as ransom, according to a report by SBM Intelligence.

“These large-scale abductions are fund-raising activities for them so that they can reinforce themselves and buy more weapons,” MacHarry said.

Children seen as easy and soft targets, poor security, high returns and lack of deterrence are some of the reasons why bandits turned their gaze on schools.

“They are the most defenceless and vulnerable people you would ever meet. They are powerless when they are attacked,” said Achike Chude, a public affairs analyst.