The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) made known on Thursday in a statement signed by its Communication Specialist, Samuel Kaalu, noting that the closure had impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year.
No fewer than 11,536 schools have remained closed since December 2020 as a result of abductions and security related issues.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) made known on Thursday in a statement signed by its Communication Specialist, Samuel Kaalu, noting that the closure had impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year.
According to Samuel, the interruption of learning contributed to gaps in children’s knowledge and skills, which it feared may lead to the loss of approximately $3.4 billion in the children’s lifetime earnings, stressing that it perpetuates cycles of poverty and inequality.
UNICEF is collaborating with the government of Nigeria to protect children’s right to education in a safe and inclusive learning environment, he said.
According to him, the programme involved; building the capacity of School-based management committees (SBMCs) on school safety and security and strengthening community resilience.
It also called on the authorities in Nigeria to make schools safe and provide a secure learning environment for every child, especially for girls, to increase their enrolment, retention, and completion of education.
The first known attack on a learning institution in Nigeria took place on 14 April 2014, when 276 students at Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, were abducted by Boko Haram members, Samuel explained.
He said since then, there had been a spate of attacks on schools and abductions of students, sometimes resulting in deaths.
He lamented that the incidents had become recurrent in the last two years, especially in the north-west and north-central regions of the country.
“Since December 2020, 1,436 school children and 17 teachers have been abducted from schools, and 16 school children lost their lives,” he said.