Nigerian parents keep children home as school kidnappings reshape education
Parents across Nigeria are withdrawing their children from classrooms in growing numbers, driven by a persistent fear that schools have become targets for mass abductions. The trend came into sharp focus again in May, when 46 children and teachers were seized from a school in the southwestern state of Oyo. The group was rescued and reunited with their families in July, but the episode has done little to ease anxiety in communities that have watched similar attacks unfold for more than a decade.
A pattern stretching back to Chibok
The abduction from Oyo state is the latest in a long series of school-targeted kidnappings that have unsettled Nigeria since the 2014 seizure of the Chibok schoolgirls. That case, which drew global attention, marked a turning point in how families and authorities perceive the safety of educational institutions. Since then, armed groups have repeatedly struck schools across northern and, increasingly, southwestern regions, abducting students and staff for ransom or leverage in wider conflicts.
Millions out of school
According to figures referenced in recent reporting, roughly 27 percent of children in Nigeria are out of school, placing the country among the highest in the world for out-of-school populations. While the causes are varied, including poverty, geographic remoteness and weak infrastructure, the climate of fear created by abductions has become one of the most visible barriers to enrollment. Families interviewed in affected regions describe keeping their children at home, even when local schools remain open, because the risk of attack feels intolerable.
Fear as a daily reality
Educators and community leaders say the psychological toll extends well beyond the immediate victims of any single attack. Parents who once sent their children to school without hesitation now weigh every journey against the possibility of an abduction. Teachers describe classrooms that have emptied, and school administrators acknowledge that rebuilding trust will require more than the occasional rescue operation. Security measures, including the deployment of armed guards at some institutions, have been uneven and have not restored widespread confidence.
A widening challenge
Analysts note that school kidnappings are part of a broader pattern of insecurity in Nigeria, where armed groups operate across multiple regions and where rural communities often sit far from effective state protection. The cumulative effect, observers warn, is a generation of children whose schooling is interrupted, shortened or abandoned entirely. With each new attack, the cycle of fear that keeps children away from classrooms risks entrenching one of Africa’s most significant education crises.
Nigerian authorities continue to face pressure to dismantle the networks behind school abductions and to reassure families that classrooms can be safe spaces. Until that confidence is restored, families say, the decision to keep children home remains the only protective choice they feel they have.
Source: FRANCE 24 — read the original report.
