Worried by  the     alarming rate of violence and insecurity across Nigeria, especially in the North East  and particularly targeted at children and students in Nigerian schools, Nigerian Safe School Week Initiative has launched the  Safe School Year Awareness Campaign.According to the convener, Mr Oshunmakinde Adedayo,  Nigerian Safe School Week Initiative, a year-long awareness campaign would among other things step up actions on how to better protect the nation’s schools against all forms of violence as well as potential threats which  if not managed could endanger the education objective. Adedayo explained that the goal of the campaign was to get all stakeholders involved in the safety of schools.

His words: “This awareness campaign  was conceptualized  by NIDSS,an arm of MYK Crime Control Services in collaboration with Women Advocates for Safer Schools Network and other security agencies. It seeks to mobilize parents, policymakers, school officials, students and religious groups across the nation. The goals are  to educate stakeholders  on the elements of school safety, engage them  in making more schools safer and facilitate the development of strategic plans that will effectively address each school’s unique safety and security concerns.

 

Giving a breakdown of violence and threats to Nigerian school children, Adedayo said , “ According  statistics, as of September 2006, there were more than 1.7million internally displaced persons in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa which were most affected by Boko Haram insurgency. Boko Haram rejects  western education and attacks public and private schools.On this note, education facilities were destroyed, school teachers killed and students were kidnapped. Between 2009 and 2015, attacks in northern Nigeria destroyed more than 910 schools and forced at least more than 1,500 to close.

“In April 2014, over 200 girls between age 16 and 18 were abducted from a secondary school in the Nigerian town of Chibok by Boko Haram insurgents. Also in April 2018, another  attack was unleashed on  Dapchi Secondary School Girls and  over 100 girls were kidnapped.Furthermore, some shocking school attacks in the South-West of Nigeria cannot be overlooked and affected  the likes of Turkish Int’l School,  Lagos Model College, Igbonla, Epe and the Barbington Macaulay Junior School, Ikorodu. These attacks were motivated by  the same underlying causes and it makes no sense to consider each one separately, but  they can endanger the education agenda of  government and deny pupils  right to  education.No child should have to worry about  safety when in school”. The priority of this initiative is to seek people’s opinion and closely examine ways to better protect our nation’s students and schools against violence and attacks. So, the awareness campaign  is set to mobilize 30 million first  responders  that will lead and drive the vision of Save-our-Schools/Be Safe and Sound in School  in the country. It will however provide a social networking platform that allows people to access urgent information, share ideas and  pledge towards an enabling environment for  school children”.