10,200 CLOSED SCHOOLS AND THE RIGHTS OF MILLIONS OF OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

No fewer than 10,200 schools are closed in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad as a result of conflict, a global body, Save the Children international, has said. This has promoted the violation of the rights of millions of out of school children living across the continent in conflict zones. In its latest report, entitled: “Stop the War on Children 2020: Gender Matters”, the organisation noted that Africa had the highest number of children in conflict globally with 170 million living across the continent in conflict zones. This figure, according to the organisation, was equivalent to one in every four African children – the highest absolute number of any region in the world.
The UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines very basic human rights (e.g., to protect children against child labor and violence and secure their right for education) which can address the rights of millions of children living across the continent in conflict zones and 10,200 schools that are closed in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad . My list of children’s rights starts from the assumption that children are in an educational environment. I hope this list of rights will raise awareness for the subtle abuse and hidden suffering that occur in schools every day.
A new system of education should be adopted as part of our educational system in order to accommodate out of school children who are facing insecurity and killings in some parts of Africa. Pupils are traumatized and this is militating against their resolve to consistently be in classrooms for learning. Any approach to solve these menace without considering the fact that they had been subjected to grow differently will not be productive.
The peculiarities of these millions of out of school children living across the continent in conflict zones are:
 Homelessness
 Lack of shelter
 Hunger
 Lack of parental care
 Clothing
 They are very fearful
 Out of school/vocational skill
They have been exposed to different means of surviving as a human being.
It indicated that successive generations of children across the continent have grown up knowing nothing other than conflict, including in the three West and Central Africa countries that are included in the list of the top 10 worst conflict-affected countries to be a child – DRC, Mali, and Nigeria. The increasingly protracted nature of conflicts has changed the risks that children face, and the effects of this are wide-ranging. “Particularly in Sahel countries, schools are targeted. This is serious enough when we know that children living in a context of humanitarian crisis consider education as a priority.
Children have nothing to do with the causes of armed conflicts, yet we are the ones most affected by it – exposed to hunger and disease, displaced, tortured, killed, sexually-abused, deprived of education, trafficked, separated from parents, recruited as child soldiers. When will children’s suffering end? Leaders should understand that if we are not heard today, we cannot speak tomorrow.
The Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) should not be allowed to recruit 14 million Out of school children in Nigeria who could serve as breeding criminals for kidnapping and armed robbery. The insurgents are desperate to overrun northeast Nigeria and render the government weak to respond to their criminal tendencies that had kept that part of Nigeria under their control. Since the merger with ISIS, Boko Haram has developed into a desperate monster, devouring its victims and inflicting pains in people and government of Nigeria. The group has changed tactics from attacking mosques, markets, public buildings and barracks to abduction of defenseless people.
I want to beg the federal government, state governments and local governments to work hard so that the 14 million out of school children are not recruited into Boko Haram, armed robbers or enlisted them into kidnapping gangs. In the 21st century, we cannot afford to produce 14 million jihadists, kidnappers and armed robbers. Let us work hard to eliminate out of school children in Nigeria.
69% of the out of school children are in the north could be classified as “vulnerable “and exposed to the jihadists and threatened by various terror organizations. Majority of the children could be recruited into Boko Haram terror group. The situation is that an entire generation of children in the northeast is being robbed of their right to education, an essential ingredient for their future and for the development of the northeast region, which for years has lagged behind that of other parts of the country. Without urgent action to address the lack of access to education occasioned by the Boko Haram attacks, the lives of these children could become locked in unending cycles of underachievement and poverty. Boko Haram is also a kidnapping group today. Boko Haram has kidnapped some of these out of school children and recruit them into the terror group.

The 170 million children living across the continent in conflict zones are out-of-school children can only be reached with targeted interventions that address the range of barriers faced by marginalized youth, and innovative financing can be used to fund and keep attention on interventions targeting out-of-school children. Attacks on education occur around the world, both inside and outside of situations of armed conflict. In many regions, armed groups intentionally target schools, teachers, and students. These attacks violate the rights of the child: in addition to putting children at risk of injury or death, they can thwart students’ chance to get an education. Attacks on schools, teachers, and students can cause children to drop out or go to school less often, force schools to cut their hours, and destroy school buildings and materials. In environments of violence and fear, the quality of children’s education is severely diminished.
About 258 million children and youth are out of school, according to UIS data for the school year ending in 2018. The total includes 59 million children of primary school age, 62 million of lower secondary school age and 138 million of upper secondary age. As countries strive to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030, the UIS is providing the data and analysis needed to reach the children and youth who remain excluded from education.
A survey conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates that the population of out of school children in Nigeria has risen from 10.5 million to 14 million, the highest in the world. Most of these children are in Nigeria’s northern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, where Boko Haram insecurities have disrupted academic activities. The indistinctive chatter of young children playing outdoors is very familiar. The boys are playing football while the girls are jumping around.
Most of the children are out of school while some have never been to school.
87 per cent of poverty in Nigeria is in the north with millions of children out of school. Nine states in the North contribute almost 50 per cent of the entire malnutrition burden in Nigeria. “There is drug problem, Almajiri problem and Boko Haram problem in the North. Nigeria needs to take leap to bring more children into education and into learning. Partnerships and collective actions are essential.