The administration of Niger State has decided to reopen 11 public schools where students were abducted in 2021.
The schools were among 42 in the state that were closed in 2021 as a result of regular banditry attacks and student kidnapping. They’re anticipated to reopen during the next academic year.
The kidnapping of 99 females from Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School Tegina in Rafi Local Government Area, where the students, all girls, spent nearly 88 days in the kidnappers’ den, was the attack’s high point.
The state’s Ministry of Education is closely monitoring the security situation as it impacts the communities where the remaining 31 schools are located, according to a reputable source close to the ministry.
The state’s local government areas of Gurara, Wushishi, and Lavun are home to some of the reopened schools.
The decision to reopen the schools was made in response to an improvement in the security circumstances in the affected districts, according to the Commissioner, Hajia Hadiza Mohammed, on Wednesday.
Jibrin Kodo, the ministry of basic and secondary education’s spokesperson, said this in a statement.
Mohammed claimed that key players in the education system, such as representatives of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, the Parents Teachers Association, the Heads of Schools, and the ANCOPSS, had been informed of the decision to reopen the schools.
She claims that in order to prepare the schools for their reopening, an online data collection of all.
Mohammed stated that “indexing of students” would now begin in all classes, from early childhood education through senior secondary school, and that ECCDE has been made mandatory because no child will be admitted into primary school without having completed it.
She said that the ministry had decided to set up Quality Assurance Offices and supply them with sufficient teaching and learning resources in each of the state’s 25 local government units.
The statement quoted her as adding, “There will be sanctions for principals who indulge in the collection of unnecessary fees from students.”