Managing director of North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, has disclosed that about 2,295 teachers lost their lives while 19000 others displaced in the over 11-year Boko Haram insurgency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
He said an estimated 1500 schools were destroyed in 2014 with over 1,280 casualties among teachers and students, saying that the Boko Haram crisis has further devastated the education system as children, teachers and schools were on the front line of conflict.
Alkali spoke yesterday while flagging off a five- day training for basic education workshop for 300 basic education teachers at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim College of Education, in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
He said, “ The state of education in the North East region has been in regression even before the insurgency and has declined further following the Boko Haram attacks on educational infrastructure in the region.
“Over 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 others displaced in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the last eleven years. An estimated 1,500 schools have been destroyed since 2014, with over 1,280 casualties among teachers and students. The crisis has further devastated the education system as children, teachers and schools were on the front line of conflict.
“The consequences of attacks on education include high student drop-out rates, reduced enrollment, lower rates of transition to higher education levels, overcrowding, and loss of instructional hours.
Alkali noted that adolescent girls and boys are at higher risk of joining armed groups or criminal gangs and levels of exploitation and abuse, including trafficking and sexual violence also increase.
He said as a matter of fact, the North East region has the lowest literacy rates as well as poorest performance in examinations.
“The activities under the Commission’s Education Revitalisation Programme such as teachers training and education support are a few of such creative efforts that aspire to reverse the negatives that are associated with the education sub-sector in the North East as highlighted above.
“Under the first phase of its Teachers’ Capacity Building Programme, the Commission plans to train over 1500 teachers starting with 300 in Borno State and subsequently in the other five states of the region,” Alkali further said.
He added that the training is for a duration of 5 days and the venues are Maiduguri and Biu.
“We have two hundred teachers here from Borno Central and Borno North. The training for the 100 teachers representing Borno South will hold from the 15th to 19th November at Biu Central Primary School.
“The teachers training aims to boost teachers’ capacity in pedagogy, safety and trauma counselling skills amongst others. The training aims to ensure that teachers would learn to improve their educational skills, improve overall organization, time management, technical knowledge and learn better ways to motivate the students,” Alkali said.