3,795 teachers killed, 1,500 schools torched in BAY states, says NEDC

The Managing Director, North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, has said that 12 years of insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) states has led to the killing of 3,795 teachers and razing of 1,500 schools.

Alkali raised the alarm, yesterday, while flagging off the five-day training of 300 teachers at the Kashim Ibrahim College of Education, Maiduguri, Borno.

According to him, education is critical to the post-insurgency recovery programmes in the region, adding that the training will rebuild and enhance the capacity of teachers to improve their teaching skills.

“This requires that we invest in critical educational infrastructure and programmes by returning students to the rebuilt schools,” he said, noting that the conflict has also led to increase in school drop-outs, low school enrolment, and low rate of transition to higher education levels.

Other long terms effects, he asserted, comprise overcrowding and loss of instructional hours. The MD warned that adolescent girls and boys were at risk of joining armed groups, with increased levels of exploitation and abuse, as the region had the lowest rate of literacy with rising poverty and unemployment.

On teachers’ capacity building, he disclosed that 1,500 teachers would be trained, commencing with 300 in Borno and replicated in the other five states of the region.

“They (teachers) would learn to improve their educational skills and overall organisation, time management, technical knowledge and motivate the students through provision of psycho-social support, as well as invest in the future of the children with professional growth,” he said.

Chairman of Limo Holdings Consult, Lawan Alhaji, said the teachers were being trained in basic education at the primary and junior secondary levels.

He noted that the 300 teachers were to be trained to teach Mathematics, English and Basic Science in the three senatorial districts of Borno.

(The Guardian)