More than one third of children in the Northeast are out of school-Report

More than one third of children in the Northeast are out of school as a result of Boko Haram insurgency, Save the Children, an NGO, said in a report. In its Report, “Turning Education Around: Responding to the Crisis in Borno State, North East Nigeria, 2017", the NGO said more than 600 teachers have been […]

More than one third of children in the Northeast are out of school as a result of Boko Haram insurgency, Save the Children, an NGO, said in a report.

In its Report, “Turning Education Around: Responding to the Crisis in Borno State, North East Nigeria, 2017", the NGO said more than 600 teachers have been killed, nearly 1,200 schools are damaged or destroyed and at least 1,500 schools have been forced to close due to attacks.

The country director of Save the children, Ben Foot said there is need for constant engagement of community members to curtail the attacks on schools in the North eastern part of the country .

According to him, Save the children is working in Borno state, in conjunction with UNICEF and PLAN, to ensure that children get back to school.

“The security situations in the country is restricting movement, and we can’t reach children in some areas .The teachers have to be aware of what is happening around them, and have to be fully prepared in case such attacks comes up again .We want them to be better prepared, and fully informed to counter such attacks”

In the same vein, he said there is need to engage communities, so as to be sensitized on how to keep the school safe at all times.

“If you put soldiers with guns in the school, the soldiers will come for the gun, but when you properly mobilize the community members, they will be in a good position to protect the students”

“Let the children be aware of the potential dangers and how to respond when such situations occur, we need to change the way of doing things in the past”.

The Norwegian ambassador who was represented by the deputy head of mission, Vibeke Soegaard reiterated the commitment of the Norway government to both quantitative and qualitative education in the country.

She said the Norway government since 2014 has provided the sum of 16.5 million dollars to support education intervention in the country.

According to her, Norway started supporting education in Nigeria through UNICEF in Nigeria four years ago, and now we are in 2018, and we have continued in this regards.

“This is the largest development project in Nigeria .We are also supporting various sectors, like food and security. We have a small project on women peace and security, where we work with women and children who have been adopted by boko haram and who have come out and are rejected by their community”

She further added that there is need for the state government to ensure that emotional and psychological support is given to the women and children in the North eastern part of the country.

“We need to have counseling unit where traumatized women and children will be given enough support to stabilize their health due to the experience they have passed through in times past”.

In an interview with the press, Maryam Ahmed, a child ambassador said there is need to improve the learning environment ,so that it will be safe for learning for the students and teachers.

“We need to improve learning in emergency situation .We need to evaluate what works, and what doesn’t work, the changes that need to be adopted, and how resources can be used effectively”.

The girl child ambassador further said, that 95% of the out of school children are from the northern part of Nigeria.

“It’s a very high number and really sad to hear the data .There is need to improve the education sector .We need to restructure the system”