Current Education Impacts and Action
Over the past two years, northeast Nigeria has witnessed a continuation of violence due to Boko Haram. Specifically in the states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, the conflict continues to affect living conditions for residents. In 2020, Global Education Cluster's Education in Emergency Working Group (EiEWG) provided various types of assistance to conflict-affected students, which included improved learning space, access to learning materials, and teacher training. The EiEWG's actions targeted 812,200 children and reached 812,800 children; as for teachers, they targeted 13,400 and only reached 1,611.
While Global Education Cluster has supported a large number of people impacted by the conflict, so many others are still in need. Education is especially in danger; schools are one of the biggest targets for destruction when AOGs (Armed Opposition Groups) attack, which makes those spaces uninhabitable and unsafe for learning. For teachers, these attacks 1) result in losing their teaching and learning materials, and 2) negatively impact their wellbeing and professional development. For students, these attacks 1) threaten (and sometimes cut off) their access to education, and 2) negatively impact their psychosocial wellbeing.
Notably- and especially during the COVID-19 period of school closure- radio learning has become the primary means of access to education. This is when audio recording of teaching is disseminated over radio to students' homes. Radio learning is an example of distance learning, one of the three main EiE interventions discussed here. Still, these three EiE methods are largely underutilized within the northeast Nigeria/Boko Haram conflict. Next, I discuss these main EiE interventions and analyze their effectiveness in the context of this conflict.
