GCPEA News
Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills 2,295 Teachers in North-East – Minister
Premium Times / All Africa, May 3, 2018
By Azeezat Adedigba
Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has said 2295 teachers were killed in attacks by insurgents in the North-east.
The minister said this during a workshop organised for the Review of Legal Framework on the Safe School Declaration in Abuja on Wednesday.
The minister, who expressed concern over the systematic destruction targeted at education, said 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 others displaced in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States in the last nine years.
The minister’s claims follow similar ones by the teachers’ union and governments of the affected states.
Apart from teachers, the Boko Haram insurgency has also caused about 100,000 deaths since 2009, according to the Borno government.
Mr Adamu said an estimated 1,500 schools have been destroyed since 2014, with over 1,280 casualties “among teachers and students”.
The minister said without access to quality learning, the Nigerian child is not only being deprived of education, but also robbed of future opportunities which will affect the entire society.
He said by joining Nigeria in the struggle to address the challenge, development partners have committed to undertake steps to make it less likely that students, teachers and schools will be attacked.
“Our development partners have also chosen to mitigate the negative consequences when such attacks occur,” he said
Similarly, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Sunny Echono, said there was need to develop a sound legal framework to ensure proper implementation of the Safe School Initiatives aimed at protecting schools from attacks.
According to him, the workshop was meant to formally inform stakeholders about review.
It was also aimed at interacting and sharing experiences with countries that have implemented the Safe School Declaration, the official added.
