Teaching in Boko Haram-ravaged states

Indeed, most observers believe that teachers are the prime target of the Jama’atu AhlisSunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, better known as ‘Boko Haram’ abhors Western education.Sadly, until recently, not much was reported about the travails of teachers in the north-east even as hundreds of them have been killed and scores either incapacitated or uprooted from their […]

Indeed, most observers believe that teachers are the prime target of the Jama’atu AhlisSunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, better known as ‘Boko Haram’ abhors Western education.
Sadly, until recently, not much was reported about the travails of teachers in the north-east even as hundreds of them have been killed and scores either incapacitated or uprooted from their homes.
“Naturally, teachers are soft targets because they are easily identified and their movements from home to school easily monitored,” said Mr. Yohanna Ishaku, a retired headmaster.
Whenever there is an onslaught on schools, the media, health workers andsecurity agencies tend to give more attention to the number of studentskilled as well as the damage done to buildings.
Ishaku said many teachers have lost their lives in the course of impacting knowledge to students even though once they are gone, they are immediately forgotten by almost everybody except their immediate families.
Apart from Maiduguri, parts of Jere, Biu, and Hawul as well asBayo local government areas, schools are no longer functioning in most parts of Borno State. This is evident in the fact that some local government areas have been completely taken over by Boko Haram and the inhabitants chased away.
Some of these councils include Bama, Gwoza, Mafa, Dikwa, Gamboru-Ngala, Kala Balge, Marte, Abadam and Kukawa among others.
With the disruption of normal life in the affected towns and villages, teachers, just like other people had to leave to safer locations.
For now, many of them are leaving in Maiduguri, the state capital and some have even left the profession because of the risks involved.
Unlike doctors and other medical personnel who captured and taken to Boko Haram camps where they are forced to treat wound militants, teachers are not so lucky as they are killed out-rightly as the group’s ultimate aim is to prevent Western education.
“I voluntarily resigned my job after I narrowly escaped death when the terrorists attacked our quarters at Government Girls College Konduga,” said a female teacher, who asked for anonymity for the sake of her safety.”I don’t have another job but I am not perturbed…May be I would changemy mind if things change but for now, I would rather stay at home.”
Last July, Governor Kashim Shettima made a startling revelation that176 teachers have been killed in Borno State and over 900 blocks of classrooms destroyed by the terrorists.
The attack by the Boko Haram fighters on Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, which led to the abduction of 276 students, rattled bothteachers and students, not only in Borno but also in neighbouring Yobe andAdamawa.
The development forced the official closure of all public schools in Borno even though hundreds of schools, especially on thenorthern fringes of the state, have not been in session for over twoyears.
Abdulrahman Adam, a teacher from Baga in Kukawa local government area, said he has been in Maiduguri for nearly a year now. “I can’t remember the last time I held chalk or stood in front ofpupils…going to school is no longer possible in our localities, the Boko Haram men have forbidden attending school and the punishment for defaulters is dead.”
But the Borno State government has remained resolute in ensuring that Western education is not only sustained but made attractive for all.
Most of the classrooms destroyed by the insurgents, especially in areas that are accessible, have been rebuilt.Two months ago, a committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. Mohammed El-Nur Dongel was commissioned to fashion out ways that would makepublic schools safe.
After painstakingly assessing the situation, the committee advised
that schools in Maiduguri, part of Jere and Konduga be reopened
while those in volatile areas should remain closed.So far, 450 primary schools out of the 1357 have resumedacademic activities.
Similarly, there are temporary classrooms in places where internally displaced persons (IDPs) are.These days, it is common to see teachers attending to pupils at the NYSC orientation camp, Yerwa Girls Secondary School, EYN Church in’Jerusalem,’ Government College Maiduguri and other places.
Dongel said very soon, the state government will give car loans and furniture allowance to teachers to encourage them to remain in the profession. A week after the re-opening of the schools, Governor Shettima launched the distribution of free uniforms, free books and free meals for pupils and students in junior secondary schools.
“What we are doing is a kind of multi-faceted approach so that both teachers and students remain committed. Wecannot afford to ignore any of them,” Dongel said.
The approach is the same in Yobe State where teachers from Gulani and Gujba, two local councils taken over by the Boko Haram, have relocatedto Damaturu.
Some schools such as the College of Agriculture, Gujba, where students were massacred last year, have relocated to Damaturu and academic activities are continuing.
In Gombe, volunteer teachers are taking care of displaced children at a camp in the town and a similar initiative is going on in Adamawa State, especially after the earlier taken over of Michika, Song, Maiha andMubi by the Boko Haram. It is expected that the recapture of other towns by Nigerian security forces this month will allow the displaced people to return to their homes.
The federal government and the international community are also intervening in ensuring that the desperate move by the Boko Haram to frustrate formal education does not materialise.
One of such moves is the Safe Schools Initiative, which has the backing of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is the representative of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Brown had pledged $10 million (7.4 million euros) to the scheme during the last World Economic Forum which held in May.
During the launching of the scheme in Abuja, about N1.6 billionwas generated for the take-off of the programme which is expected to give preference to the northeastern part of the country.
In November, headmasters and principals from 114 institutions, with 100 of the schools drawn from the northeast, attended a workshop on security organised by UNESCO.
The training was basically to help the school administrators handle the instability, trauma and uncertainty caused by the activities of the Boko Haram which has been disrupting education in the region.
While giving a first-hand account of the dilemma the educational sector is facing in the northeast, Hajiya Asabe Ali Kwambula, the principal of Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, said no investment was too much to enhance the safety ofschools across the country.
 “We are in the frontline of nation building and the mission of making education a yardstick for national development,” the principal noted.
Participants from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe were given 1,350 Safe Schoolkits for their establishments. The kits were developed by anon-governmental organisation, ExamEthics Marshal International, in collaboration with Nigerian security authorities and contains, among other things, a printed safety manual, and instructional audiovisual materials.
The workshop was financed by UNESCO as part of the organisation’s response to the abduction of theChibokschool girls and attacks on other schools.
On its part, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Borno State chapter, is also taking measures to ensure that its members are well protected and families of their slain members not forgotten. Last week, officials of the union donated N1 million to 50 families oftheir members who were killed as a result of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.
State chairman of the union, Comrade Bulama Abiso, said each member has agreed to make a monthly contribution of N500 forthe upkeep of families of deceased members.
“Recently we presented N10, 000 cash and food items worth N10, 000 torepresentatives of 50 members that were killed in various circumstances and the exercise is a continuous one,” Abiso said.
The NUT chairman lamented that so far, 200 teachers from primary and secondary schools have been killed across the state, saying that many of them were trapped and killed at their duty posts.
He further said teachers are now restricted to a few local government areas of the statedue to the frequent seizure of towns and villages by the terrorist group.
“This so called territorial conquest makes teaching service extremely difficult but our members are trying to   cope with teaching in various camps, though many of them are displaced people themselves,” Abiso said.
Mohammed Abba, a teacher from Damboa town, said life must go on in spite of the insurgency: “It is now that I truly believe that teachers’ reward is in heaven.We are displaced but we have no option but to keep teaching our students at the IDP camps. We were displaced together and we stilllive together at the same camp.”