The Federal Government is to adopt some specific measures aimed at checkmating incessant bandits’ attacks on soft targets especially schools in Nigeria.
Some of the measures include temporary abolition of boarding schools in rural areas, creating a special security unit for schools and introduction of security studies into the curriculum of our institutions.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Andrew Adejo, who announced this yesterday in Yola at the 81st Joint Consultative Committee on Education, said other measures, included drilling of students and teachers on emergency measures, construction of perimeter walls around schools and the installation of CCTV/alarm system.
Adejo noted that it had “become very pertinent in the light of attacks on our educational institutions, kidnapping of innocent children, wards and even parents and guardians, culminating in an unsettling air of insecurity that threatens our educational systems. The need to ensure the delivery of qualitative education in Nigeria is a common trend that runs through all parents, hence the need to ensure the existence of a peaceful, secure and serene environment for effective teaching and learning, only if we work individually and collectively towards eliminating extreme cases of fear and uncertainty.”
Declaring the workshop open, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, among others, said, “ While the general security lives and properties of all Adamawa citizens remain our paramount priority, more important is the security of the schools that hatches the younger ones to take up the task of the nation building.”
Fintiri added that “Government has a duty to carry on the responsibilities of the provision of the required infrastructure. I must add that we all have vital roles to play; school managers, facilitators, teachers, administrators, role models, parents and guardians have to play these roles responsibly. It is indeed, one thing, to secure the schools from external aggression and an entirely different thing to keep.”