The Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), has called for the urgent operationalisation of the safe schools declaration to halt the attacks on school children.
The National Moderator of CSACEFA, Peculiar Caleb, made the call at a news conference marking the coalition’s 25th anniversary and its 2025 Annual General Forum in Abuja on Wednesday.
Caleb urged the government to deploy trained personnel to vulnerable schools and strengthen coordination among military, police, NSCDC and local actors to safeguard children in schools.
She expressed concern over Nigeria’s rising insecurity, especially the escalating attacks on schools, in spite the country’s commitments under the Safe Schools Initiative (2014) and the Safe Schools Declaration (2015).
“Nigeria is becoming increasingly unsafe for children to learn.
” Despite signing the Safe Schools Initiative (2014) and endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration (2015), with accompanying operational guidelines, training manuals, and policies our schools remain vulnerable to violent attacks.
“From abduction of Chibok girls (2014) to Dapchi (2018), Kagara (2021), Jangebe (2021), Federal Government College Yauri (2021), Kuriga (2024), and now the 2025 mass abductions in Niger and Kebbi States.
“Nigeria continues to witness shocking violations of the right to education,” she said.
She also want the government to reopen and secure the 589 closdd schools across Northern Nigeria and all 41 federal unity s schools.
“We call on government and stakeholders to act now.
“Nigeria cannot build a secure, prosperous, and inclusive future when millions of children remain out of school and hundreds in captivity, when schools are unsafe, and when funding for education remains insufficient,” she said.
She also raised concern on the federal and state government’s inability to meet international benchmarks on education financing, in spite Nigeria’s global commitments under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
Also speaking, the Programme Manager of the coalition, Demian-Mary Adeleke, while reeling out the numbers of abducted students in the past, urged the government to immediately address the country’s insecurity challenge.
Adeleke said that 1,683 students were kidnapped between 2014 and 2022, 180 students killed in school attacks, 859 school children abducted in 2023, and 589 schools shut down across the northern Nigeria due to insecurity.
“These attacks expose children to trauma, exploitation, sexual violence and death.
” How many more children must be abducted before Nigeria secures its schools,” he asked.
On his part, the Northwest Coordinator of the coalition, Bilyaminu Abubakar, while sharing experience from the region, said parents now exhibit fear in sending their girl-child to school.
Abubakar said that the result of insecurity in the region had also forced girls into early marriages as well as massive drop out of girls from school.
He appealed to the government on the need to mobilise the community members to join forces with the security to secure the schools. (NAN)
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