By Khadijah Aliyu
Stakeholders in the education sector have called for stronger collaboration and concrete action to make schools safe and conducive for learning, describing school safety as a critical foundation for quality education and peaceful coexistence.
The stakeholders made the call at the Northwest Nigeria Safe School Summit 2026, organised by the Department of Adult Education and Community Services BUK, Kano Ministry of Education, with support from EU- ABEP.
The Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano (BUK), Professor Haruna, represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Development, Professor Amina Mustapha, noted that insecurity remained a major obstacle to education, contributing to school dropout, trauma, loss of lives and increasing numbers of out-of-school children, particularly girls.
She explained that creating a safe and secure environment for learning should not be treated as an issue that can be ignored, stressing that school safety requires the collective responsibility of government and other stakeholders.
According to her, achieving safe schools requires multi-stakeholder partnerships and accountability involving communities, School-Based Management Committees, security agencies, teachers, parents and other relevant actors.
She reaffirmed BUK’s commitment to providing research evidence and promoting community engagement to support the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration in Kano State, the Northwest and Nigeria at large.
Also speaking, the Kano State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Ali Haruna Makoda, represented by the Kano AGILE CCT Coordinator, Naziru Surajo, explained that the state government had demonstrated its commitment to school safety through the provision of a dedicated budget line for safe schools across relevant ministries, departments and agencies under the education sector.
He described the summit as an opportunity for stakeholders to strengthen collaboration and urged other states in the Northwest to work closely with Kano State towards improving the safety and security of schools across the region.
In her goodwill message, the Consortium Lead and Education Adviser for the EU Project at Plan International, Aishatu Bukar, emphasised that ensuring the safety of students in schools was not the responsibility of a single institution but a collective responsibility requiring the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.
She said the Safe Schools Declaration should move beyond dialogue and translate into effective coordination and concrete action to ensure that children are protected in their schools.
The Policy Research and Influencing Manager for Plan International Nigeria, Tunde Aremu, also stressed the need for Nigeria to move beyond repeated discussions on school safety and begin measuring progress and implementing concrete solutions.
Aremu noted that Nigeria’s endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration in 2015 had provided an important framework for addressing safety challenges, but said more needed to be done to translate commitments into measurable action.
He called for increased mobilisation of resources, stronger budgetary provisions for safe schools and the development of clear implementation frameworks specifying the responsibilities of different stakeholders.
The summit brought together education stakeholders and other actors to examine challenges affecting safe learning environments and strengthen collective efforts towards protecting children and ensuring uninterrupted access to education across the Northwest.
Editing By Godwin Duru
