In a significant move to enhance the safety of students and teachers, over 4,000 primary and secondary schools across Nigeria have joined the Safe School Project in the past eight months.
This was announced by the Commander of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, Hammed Abodunrin, in an interview with newsmen.
The Safe School portal, www.nssrcc.gov.ng, was introduced last September to facilitate the registration of schools and enable swift and coordinated responses from security agencies in the event of an attack.
In April 2024, the United Nations Children’s Fund disclosed that a total of 1,680 children have been abducted while 180 of them were killed in Nigeria since the 2014 abduction of Chibok school girls in 2014.
However, giving updates on the cooperation of schools towards combating attacks, Abodunrin noted that so far no fewer than 4,000 schools have been registered since the opening of the portal and with local Desk Officers to receive coordinated security support.
Abodunrin emphasised the progress made, stating that schools are increasingly registering, and significant improvement have been recorded.
The Commandant General has appointed about 2,000 personnel as Safe School Desk Officers being trained and deployed to assist with school registrations, making the process more efficient.
He said the website had been upgraded to ensure user-friendly registration, leading to a surge in new registrations, especially in the past few weeks.
Abodunrin highlighted that schools had also been reaching out voluntarily for registration assistance.