School children abduction in Nigeria: Implication for educational development in northern Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines school children abduction in Nigeria and its implication for the educational development in northern Nigeria. The main objectives are to examine the effects of school children abduction on the educational development of the Nigerian child as well as the implications of school children abduction on the educational development in northern Nigeria. The study adopts a qualitative approach and relied on data collected through secondary source. The work is situated on Queer Ladder Theory (QLT) propounded by Daniel Bell (1919–2011), an American sociologist, who tend to explain the instrumental nature of organized crime as a desperate method of socioeconomic empowerment and social advancement. The study revealed that between 2014 and 2021, gunmen kidnapped over 1,500 students, mostly girls, and about 1,280 teachers and pupils have died and over 1,400 schools have been destroyed. The study also revealed the effects of school children adoption to include: reductions in teacher recruitment, falls in student enrollment and lowered rates of transition to higher education levels. The implication is that it will lead to lack of foreign investment in the education, decline in the national economy; a negative image of the nation; and a decrease in the passion and interest of Nigerian children in education. It therefore recommended among other things adequate security for schools in the region, combating of banditry with all seriousness and surveillance of schools in the northern part. The study concludes that kidnapping of schoolchildren in Northern Nigeria had a profoundly detrimental impact on the region's educational advancement.