Mass abduction threatens girl-child education in Nigeria – experts

The continued abductions of school children in Northern Nigeria could erode gains made to keep girls in school and force many more children to the streets leaving them vulnerable to societal ills, experts have said.

At least 800 school children have been abducted by armed bandits since December 2020. The consequence of this is already being felt in the region as several schools have been shut down and parents are wary of sending their children back to school due to fear.

While the North already occupies an unenviable position hosting the highest number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, data from the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) shows that over 5.3 million students in the region have had their education disrupted due to attacks on schools. According to UNICEF, almost 13.2 million out-of-school children in Nigeria also reside in the North.

“This new unfortunate trend will no doubt compound education woes in the north which is already educationally disadvantaged, with schools for girls being the hardest hit, girl-child education in that region is under serious threat”, Anyalewechi Princewill, a retired director at the Federal Ministry of Education told Businessday.

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“Remember that core Northerners with strong traditional and religious beliefs do not value Western education in the first place, and in such societies, there are already roles mapped out for the girl-child other than education. These abductions are another point for them to keep their wards away from formal learning.

“With this trend, the incidence of child marriage, out of school children, drug abuse, criminality and other social ills will worsen in the region except urgent and deliberate measures are taken to improve security in the region”, he said.

Despite advocacies to promote girl-child education by government and non-governmental organisations, records from UNESCO also show that southern states record 53 percent and 80 percent literacy, northern states record 14 percent to 48 percent literacy. At the zonal level by gender shows female literacy shows an abysmal 29 percent and 49.6 percent in the northern zones compared to an average 80 percent in the South. Experts are worried that insecurity and attack on schools in the North will worsen the statistics.

“These incidences of mass abduction will directly impact on the girls themselves, who would have psycho-social needs. It means that they will resort to other means of survival, that means early marriage, so from a situation, they were thriving and developing in a school, which gave them a clear direction to be able to aspire, to not having anything at all, they are the innocent victims of extortion of the worst kind”, UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins had said. He noted that it is very difficult to advise parents of any child regarding schooling or security or insecurity, as it is a very personal decision.

Experts have also raised concerns that these new attacks on schools will not only undermine efforts to keep girls in school, it will overall deepen illiteracy in the region. The trend also paints a grim picture for the region’s development and could retard national development.

“Illiteracy feeds poverty, poverty feeds insecurity. It is a vicious circle; the more children fall out of school, the more they become a ready pool for nonstate actors to recruit into terrorism and banditry and the circle continues. It will also deepen development gap between the North and South” an education analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity said.