Northeast children desperate for education ruined by Boko Haram

The charity Save the Children says children as old as 15 are flooding into its facilities for pre-school children in a “desperate effort” to learn in the north east. "This desperate quest for education reflects the hunger of children for knowledge that is not being met, which is heart-breaking" said Ben Foot, country director for […]

The charity Save the Children says children as old as 15 are flooding into its facilities for pre-school children in a “desperate effort” to learn in the north east.

"This desperate quest for education reflects the hunger of children for knowledge that is not being met, which is heart-breaking" said Ben Foot, country director for Save the Children Nigeria.

“This insurgency is based on an ideology that western education is evil and that children, teachers and schools are all legitimate targets,” he added.

Education crisis in the region has worsened after more than seven years of conflict. It is considered the worst, and humanitarian need in the region the fourth worst.

Some 1,200 schools have been damaged or destroyed in the conflict. At least 611 teachers have been reported murdered, and another 19,000 displaced, says the charity.

It equates the number to one school being attacked for every two days of the conflict.

 “The consequences have been record lows in enrolment, terrible literacy rates and arguably the worst education crisis in the world. We cannot stand by as an entire generation of children loses its right to go to school.”

More than half of the 700 children attending one Save the Children pre-school programme in Borno State in January 2017 were aged six or older with many teenagers aged up to fifteen.

The charity says the numbers show an education crisis spread across the Lake Chad region—now home to one out of every four children out of school around the world.

In need

Nigeria is thought to have up to 10 million children out of the school according to the United Nations. The conflict means up to 3m in the northeast alone are in need of education.

Displaced parents are volunteering as teachers, as the region faces severe shortage of trained teachers.

“There was a school in my village but because of these insurgent attacks it did not have any students or any children learning,” says Abu Bakar, who volunteers at a pre-school facility, after fleeing his home in Kukuwa, where a deadly insurgent attack killed at least 60 people.

“Now, I have some children in my class who are older than five or six so I have changed the way I teach,” he added.

“I arrange them according to age so I can sit with them and teach them in a way they will understand.”

“A lot of people are becoming aware of the need for education. Some of the children who come here have never been to school. So it makes a difference to the children and for some of them it is the only opportunity they will get to learn.”

Zainab, 15, is among teenagers attending classes at the pre-school facility.

Her brother died in an insurgent attack, she fled and dropped out of school.

“I learn English words like ‘hospital’, ‘wagon’, ‘dog’ and ‘window’,” she said. “I feel sad because if this hadn’t happened I would be finishing school by now. Some of the children who were in the same school as me have been able to go back and are finished now.”

Only around two years of school are expected for girls in the northeast compared with nine for an average Nigerian.

Woeful funding

Little proportion of funding to rebuild the northeast goes to education.

“Whilst the rate of attacks on education facilities has slowed over the last year, and the government is rebuilding schools, we are not doing enough to strengthen the system and get as many children as possible back into formal education,” said Foot.

Only 18% of funding to respond to the humanitarian crisis went to education last year.

Demand to fund education has doubled by this year—and an international donor conference in Oslo, Norway hopes to raise at least $1 billion to fund the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan.

Germany and Nigeria are part of the conference, hosted by Norway, to bring together major international donors.

Edward Kallon, the UN resident coordinator in Nigeria, called the conference an opportunity for Nigeria to tell the world the true extent of the northeast crisis.

“We need predictable long-term funding for three to five years so that we can scale up our response and work with the Nigerian government to give millions of children the chance of an education,” said Foot.

“This must include marginalized groups who fall off the education radar, such as orphans and children with disabilities.”