The Nigeria Union of Teachers and The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools have asked the Federal Government to fully implement the Safe School Initiative so as to combat the incessant abductions of teachers and learners across the country.

Speaking on Thursday in an interview with our correspondent, the National President, NUT, Mr Audu Titus-Amba expressed his disappointment at the manner at which education stakeholders were usually kidnapped in schools. This according to him often lead to death of some staff and parents’ lack of interest in sending their children back to school.

He was reacting to the March 7, 2024, abduction of LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School, Kuriga, Kaduna State, schoolchildren.

The abduction of these 287 children in Kaduna State, was one of the largest school kidnappings in the decade since the 2014 kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok village, Borno State.

The Chibok girls abduction led to the unveiling of Safe School Initiative by the FG as part of efforts to ensure that children in conflict areas or affected by insecurity continue with their education.

Furthermore, President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2019 signed the safe school declaration ratification document.

In addition, the Federal Government in December 2022 launched N144. 8 billion Safe Schools Financing Plan, with a view to protecting schools from terrorist attacks, across the nation.

However, a report stated that the Initiative, largely implemented by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, had only covered 21,000 schools of the 80,000 identified as vulnerable to attacks by bandits, terrorists and kidnappers.

But Amba said, “Government needs to intensify efforts to implement the Safe School Initiative so as to protect our children. Most of the schools do not have perimeter fencing, the government need to fence these schools and provide security personnel for each school.”

He lamented that the incessant abductions would lead to increase in the number of out-of-school children, saying parents whose children had been abducted would no longer want to return them to school.

Amba called on the government to include teachers as members of the forum, adding that they were in the best position to give government ideas and suggestions on how to make the schools more secured.

Also, the March 24, 2024 abduction had only 137 of the children to have been reportedly released out of the 287.

When asked about his thought on the whereabouts of the remaining 150 children, Amba said, “All the children kidnapped have reunited with their parents and no single parent has come out since then to say they did not find their children. This means the real figure kidnapped was actually 137 not 287.”

Also speaking, National President, NAPPS, Mr Yomi Odubela, appealed to the government to bridge the gap of trust deficit between them and the governed by allocating more budget to the Safe School policy so that it gets implemented appropriately and nationally.

He advised government to provide enough safety technological appliances for both private and public schools.

Otubela said, “We can eradicate the incessant kidnappings of teachers and students if government can budget for technological safety appliances for both private and secondary schools. All children in our country deserve to be safe. Since government do not pay fees of children in private schools, they should be able to pay for their security by providing both stakeholders with CCTVs, solar energy to power them, toll free lines to call when there is any incident.”