TheCable

Violence and attacks against civilian populations in north-eastern Nigeria and its neighboring countries have forced more than 1 million children out of school, according to UNICEF.

The organisation said the number of children missing out on their education due to insurgency, adds to the estimated 11 million children of primary school age who are already out of school in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, before the onset of the crisis.

Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s West and Central Africa regional director, refers to the numbers as “a staggering one”.

“The insurgency has been a huge blow for education in the region, and violence has kept many children out of the classroom for more than a year, putting them at risk of dropping out of school altogether,” he said.

“The challenge we face is to keep children safe without interrupting their schooling. Schools have been targets of attack, so children are scared to go back to the classroom; yet the longer they stay out of school, the greater the risks of being abused, abducted and recruited by armed groups.”

According to UNICEF, across Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, over 2,000 schools remain closed due to insurgency – some of them for more than a year – and hundreds have been attacked, looted or set on fire.

In far north Cameroon, only 1 out of the 135 schools closed in 2014 has re-opened this year.

In north-eastern Nigeria, UNICEF says it has supported 170,000 children back into education in the safer areas of the three states most affected by the conflict, where the majority of schools have been able to re-open.

However, the organisation says many classrooms are severely overcrowded because “some school buildings are still being used to house the large numbers of displaced persons seeking shelter in the region”.

“In these areas, some displaced teachers, who themselves have fled the fighting, are involved in the schooling and classes are often given on a ‘double shift’ basis to help more children attend school,” UNICEF said in a statement.

“In other areas, however, insecurity, fear of violence and attacks are preventing many teachers from resuming classes and discouraging parents from sending their children back to school. In Nigeria alone, approximately 600 teachers have been killed since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency.

“Together with governments, NGOs and other partners, UNICEF has set up temporary learning spaces, renovated and expanded schools, reaching 67,000 children. In addition, UNICEF has trained teachers on psychosocial support and provided more than 132,000 children uprooted by insurgency with learning materials.”

UNICEF says it would need nearly N460 billion (US$23 million) in 2016, to provide access to education for children affected by conflicts in the four countries.

President Muhammadu Buhari has earmarked N369.6 billion for education in Nigeria, with commitments to train 500,000 teachers to meet teeming needs.

Photo Credit: VOA