Due to the increased security following a jail break where some of the most vicious criminals and terrorists escaped, schools in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, and its surroundings are being forced to close.
In a nation already experiencing an education crisis, UNICEF voiced worry that this will probably have an impact on the number of children who are not in school.
According to UNICEF, 18.5 million children in Nigeria, predominantly females, lack access to an education.
“Currently in Nigeria, there are 18.5 million out-of-school children, 60% of whom are girls,” Rahama Farah, the head of the UNICEF office in Kano, said in May. This came in the wake of mass abductions in many schools last year with some 1,500 pupils being kidnapped in 2021.
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Some of the notable abductions last year were:
- 344 schoolchildren of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, and 80 pupils of Islamiyya School, Mahuta, both in Katsina State;
- 27 boys at GSS College, Kagara, Niger State;
- and 279 schoolgirls of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State.
Some affected northern states including Katsina, Niger and Zamfara ordered the closure of – mostly boarding – schools in remote areas for several months, forcing many to give up education altogether. By UNICEF’s estimates, 11,000 schools were closed between December 2020 and early 2022 over insecurity, largely in the north.
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Banditry and terrorism had long been confined to isolated northern regions with high levels of poverty and illiteracy.