A September 2025 report by the UN has revealed that nearly 15,000 schools were closed in West and Central Africa as of mid-2025.
The situation is particularly prevalent in Nigeria and Cameroon, where insecurity and conflict has forced millions to relocate from their original places of abode.
According to the UN, insecurity in the region has disrupted education for “more than 3 million children” though experts believe the reality is widely underreported.
Busola Rafiat Ojo-oba, a social worker and a gender-based violence specialist in Lagos, believes the actual number hovers around “over 5 million school children,” with nearly 500 schools closed in Nigeria alone.
“In a country [where] poverty is multidimensional and people will not be able to break the cycle of poverty anytime soon, the number of out-of-school children and the rate of unemployment is skyrocketing, because teachers and school administrators cannot continue teaching,” she told DW.
Many children pushed out of education system
The UN report indicates that throughout the region, “[b]etween June 2024 and June 2025 alone, the number of closed schools rose from 14,364 to 14,829, disrupting the education of more than 3 million children.”
“Many children have been out of school for years,” the report further indicated.
Efe Johnson, a Youth Leader and Rights Advocate based in the Nigerian capital Abuja, says that although the overall rate of such school closures may have declined in recent months, the impact of previous closures continues to put the education of many school children in jeopardy.
“In the Northeast for example, so many schools shut down at the height of the [Boko Haram] . And the reality is that a lot of those schools never reopened, and they probably never will. Many children who were pushed out of the system never went back. They’ve just grown up outside the system,” Johnson told DW.
Experts however also believe that more sinister elements might be at play: In the case of boys, many fear that some might be recruited as child fighters while with girls, there is the concern of teenage pregnancies keeping some from returning to school.
Either way, the developments of the last decade have had some devastating effects on education, with no apparent end in sight.
Families fearing for their children
The doors of many schools in some major population areas like Anka, Bukuyyum, Maru, Shinkafi, Tsafe and Zurmi remain shut — all located in Zamfara State in northwest Nigeria.
Some schools, like the Government Day Secondary School, remain operational but many children attend their lessons in fear, which also is causing a decline in attendance, explains Umar Rabat, a teacher at the school.
“The kidnapping and banditry have created a lot of fear, so families — especially those with daughters — will feel like it’s safer to just keep them at home than risk them being abducted on their way to school,” he explained.
Ojo-oba agrees, saying that families are too busy adjusting their lives to cope with the situation every day, causing some parents to take drastic measures, including keeping their children, especially females, out of school.
“Parents can’t risk receiving that call to say their children are being kidnapped or held hostage. In addition to this fact, in the middle of insecurity their needs will revolve around food, shelter, clothing and safety. So, education will not be on the forefront of their needs,” she added.
Limited government intervention
Umar meanwhile further highlights precautions that have been taken by authorities in areas with inadequate security, such as motorcycles and vehicles being provided to security personnel and community guards to reinforce safety with day and night patrols.
Some other government interventions have included the relocation of students from conflict-prone areas to safer localities.
Especially with internally displaced populations (IDPs), the Nigerian government has also established a national framework of mini camps, built to allow children to continue their education.
However, some experts say these efforts are by far not enough to get Nigeria’s education system back on track:
“They are mostly short-lived because if funding runs out or the program stalls, what’s next?” says Efe.
COVID-era solutions to the rescue
In Nigeria’s West African neighbor, Ghana, at least 44 schools havealso been closed with nearly 5,000 pupils displaced due to conflicts in the country’s Savannah Region.
Think tank Africa Education Watch describes conflict as a “destructive factor in basic education,” with its executive director, Kofi Asare, saying that part of the problem is the fact that teachers are vacating their posts over fear for their own lives.
“In Ghana as we speak, teachers have fled Gbinyiri, which is a community in the Savannah Region, where conflict in the past three weeks alone has killed over 30 and displaced 5,000 pupils, denying them access to basic education.”
Asare adds that therefore there is a dire need for authorities across West and Central Africa to implement the Education and Emergency Plan once more, which was adopted by West African countries during COVID-19; he finds that this plan provides a framework for the deployment of learning to occur on virtual technologies, as conflict is only bound to continue.
It also augments classic teaching and learning methods in cases of challenges to physical learning infrastructures.
“It is important that countries do not shelve these policies or plans that were adopted during the COVID era. But also education ministers and governments should prioritize putting in place the necessary results to ensure that in times of conflict, the Education and Emergency Plan is triggered immediately.”
Abiodun Jamiu contributed to this article.
Edited by: Sertan Sanderson
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