“Can Education Survive Attack: The Resilience of Human Communities” is the theme of this year’s International Day to Protect Education from Attack, marked on 9 September. This is very apt for Nigeria as schools reopen for the 2026/2027 session. For a country where children are abducted from schools, the occasion is a painful reminder of a national failure. A government that cannot guarantee the safety of children in classrooms and hostels is failing one of its most fundamental responsibilities.
Schools are sanctuaries of learning, not hunting grounds for terrorists and bandits who exploit pupils and teachers for ransom, propaganda, and psychological warfare. The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack recorded at least 8,566 attacks on education worldwide in 2024 and 2025, more than a 40 per cent increase over the preceding two-year period. The attacks harmed at least 10,600 students, teachers, and education personnel. Nigeria’s experience gives this global crisis a particularly painful meaning.
In Askira-Uba LGA of Borno State, only 56 of 113 primary schools were functioning as of late August 2026, while about 80 students abducted during attacks in May and June remained in captivity. In several vulnerable communities, insecurity has forced schools to close altogether. The country has not forgotten Chibok, Dapchi, or Kankara. Yet the attacks continue. On 17 November 2025, gunmen abducted 25 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, after killing the vice-principal. Four days later, 303 students and 12 teachers were abducted from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State. These were evidence of a persistent failure to secure vulnerable learning environments.
Parents become afraid to send their children to school. Teachers resist postings to vulnerable communities. Schools close, learning is disrupted, and some children never return. UNICEF has warned that attacks on schools and abduction of teachers and pupils are causing frequent closures and preventing hundreds of thousands of Nigerian children from receiving consistent education. Nigeria endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration in May 2015 and subsequently developed a National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools. These are valuable commitments, but declarations and policies cannot protect a single child without implementation.
The government must provide adequate physical protection for vulnerable schools, intelligence-led surveillance, emergency communication systems, and rapid-response mechanisms. Communities must be integrated into security arrangements, while boarding schools in high-risk areas require special protection, controlled access, and regularly tested evacuation plans. Education is not a luxury that can wait until Nigeria becomes secure. It is actually a strong national security instrument. Every school closed by terrorists or bandits is a victory for those who want Nigeria’s children uneducated, impoverished, and vulnerable.
The government must see the protection of education as beyond an education-sector responsibility. Budgets, intelligence, security deployment, and emergency preparedness must reflect that priority.
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