Editorial note: This article reflects a January 2015 estimate released by a northern students’ association. The figure was not presented as an official government death toll but offered an indication of the effect of the insurgency on students and education in the region.
Association Estimates Student Deaths
Indications emerged yesterday of the estimated number of students who may have lost their lives to the insurgency affecting the North-East of Nigeria.
According to the Northern Students Association of Nigeria, more than 500 students had been killed in direct attacks on schools and students in the region within the previous three years.
The figure excluded a significant number of students who were receiving treatment for different degrees of injury, some of which were critical.
The leader of the association, Musa Terrang, said the group compiled the figure through its committees working with the National Emergency Management Agency and the Nigerian Red Cross.
Attacks on Schools and Students
Boko Haram, the group blamed for many of the attacks, regarded Western education as sinful and repeatedly targeted schools, teachers and students in the troubled region.
At Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, 59 boys lost their lives when armed attackers raided the school at night in February 2014. Some of the students were shot, while others were burnt to death in their dormitories.
In April of the same year, Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State. At the time this article was written, most of the girls had yet to regain their freedom or return to their families.
The Effect on Education
Schools, teachers and students had borne a heavy part of the insurgency’s impact.
The group’s hostility towards Western education made educational institutions important targets. Apart from the loss of life, numerous schools were closed or destroyed, teachers fled affected communities, and many parents became afraid to send their children to school.
In the absence of a comprehensive official figure showing the full impact of the insurgency on education, the estimate released by the students’ association offered an indication of the scale of damage suffered by the sector in the region.
Update
The attacks did not end with the period covered by the original report. School abductions and attacks later spread to other parts of northern Nigeria.
In 2024, Amnesty International reported that 82 of the 276 Chibok girls were still believed to be in captivity and that at least 1,700 children had been taken in 17 documented mass school abductions since the Chibok attack.
UNICEF also reported that 19 attacks on schools were documented in 2022 and 2023, resulting in the closure of 113 schools in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
The figures confirm that insecurity has not only taken lives but has also denied many children their right to education.
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