By Adesina Wahab

With over 1,500 students abducted and about a dozen killed, especially in the Northern part of the country in 2021, stakeholders in the education sector are not praying to witness a repeat of the ugly incidents that dotted that year.

While conventional schools were the main targets, Quranic schools were not spared in 2021 as bandits and kidnappers ravaged the region. 

The affected schools included Government Science College, Kagara in Niger State, which was attacked on February 17,2021 during which 27 students were abducted. That was the first school attacked in the year. 

Other schools attacked included Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State where 317 students were abducted, Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State where 39 students were kidnapped.

Salihu Tambo Islamic School, Tegina, Niger State was also attacked and 136 students abducted.

The list also included Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, Kaduna State, Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State among others.

However, the deadliest of the attacks took place at a private university, Greenfield University, Kaduna State on April 20, 2021 during which 20 students were kidnapped and five were killed by the bandits.

Speaking on the development in a telephone chat, the National President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigena, NAPTAN, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, said no parent is happy when his child is no longer safe in the school environment.

“Parents want a safe and conducive environment for their children to learn and situations where learners and teachers and others are attacked, kidnapped or killed by bandits or other criminal elements are not desirable. Who is that parent that will be happy when his child is turned to an item of merchandise where you begin to haggle about payment for the release of an innocent child?

“We pray such things don’t happen again. It is a great disservice to education in the country. Imagine where some parents are being begged to send their children to school and such terrible things are happening. That is not an incentive for parents to send their wards to school,” he said.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Lagos State, Comrade Akintoye Hassan, also called for making learners, teachers and others safe in schools.

“Safety of lives and property is one of the main duties of the government and no one would say he is happy when he cannot feel safe in his place of work or in a place he is expected to acquire knowledge to better his life. We want a better situation of things this new year. We don’t want a repeat of those ugly and unfortunate incidents,” he opined.

Recall that when schools resumed nationwide for the new academic session last September, the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF, came out with a report that over one million pupils and students were afraid to go back to school because of the level of insecurity in the Northern part of the country.

The nation already holds the unenviable record of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, about 13.5 million.