Academic activities resume at Dapchi school — nine months after abduction saga

Adama Abdulkarim, principal, Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe, says academic activities have resumed in the school.

Abdulkarim disclosed this on Thursday, saying at least, 80 percent of the students and teachers had resumed.

Members of the Boko Haram insurgent sect had attacked the school on February 19 , abducting 110 students.

Many parents had panicked and withdrawn their daughters from the school but the principal said majority of the students had returned.

“More than 80 per cent of the students has resumed, likewise the teachers. Almost all of them are around except very few who are away for one or more official reasons,” Abdulkarim said.

“School activities are moving smoothly as they were before the ugly incident.”

Abdulkarim said the school had taken some measures to alleviate the students’ trauma for effective learning.

“Before the incident, there were no matrons in the school, but now, with the help of the local government and permission of the ministry of education, we have been able to source for six elderly women,” she said.

“We instructed the matrons to always be around, especially in the hostels, after class hours, to comfort and encourage the students.

“On the side of the government, the military, police and civil defence personnel have been around the school at all times.

A month after abducting the girls, the insurgents had returned them with the exception of Leah Sharibu and five students who reportedly died in captivity.

Sharibu, the only Christian among the victims, had refused to renounce her faith, causing the insurgents to keep her in captivity.

The sect has threatened to keep Sharibu as a slave for life.