Jangebe students battle for education, hope

Sadiya Lawal lifted her one-year-old son, his small physique squirming as he cried. She gently ignored his protests and positioned him in her sister’s arms, providing a quick, apologetic look earlier than turning away.She moved with deliberate steps, her tempo gradual and regular, as if each motion carried the burden of the previous. Selecting a mat on the ground, she flipped the niqab over her head as she ready to share her story – one which had altered the course of her life.

“It was just a few days after we resumed faculty,” she started, her gaze shifting away as recollections of that night time resurfaced – the night time her life flashed earlier than her.

Once they got here

It was Thursday, 25 February 2021, and the lives of Mrs Lawal, now 21, and about 300 ladies have been about to vary, though none of them may have predicted it. Their faculty, the Authorities Ladies Secondary Faculty (GGSS), Jangebe, Zamfara State, had simply resumed one other faculty time period after an extended COVID-19 lockdown-induced vacation.

Many college students had but to return, however the chatter of these at school crammed the dormitories as the scholars defied gentle out to speak with pals.

About an hour after midnight, a special noise emerged on the faculty gate, a few kilometre from the scholar hostels. A bunch of Ak-47-carrying and motorcycle-riding bandits had approached the gate. One in all them tried to scale the fence however jumped down when he noticed the varsity’s native safety personnel carrying a Dane gun.

The safety man knew he couldn’t overpower the bandits and fled. The bandit scaled the fence efficiently the second time and opened the facet gate for his colleagues, giving them unrestrained entry to the varsity premises.

Their first cease was the scholars’ hostels, the place the scholars had lulled themselves to sleep. The bandits walked into the hostel foyer, flashed torches by means of the home windows, and barked orders for the scholars to step out.

Amsau Yusuf mentioned she thought considered one of their academics was making an attempt to wake them for the Subh (morning) prayers.“Get up now, or I’ll kill you,” Ms Yusuf recalled one of many bandits shouting. “We have been making an attempt to cover, they usually pointed weapons at us. We began crying, they usually herded us like cattle.”

The bandits led a number of the ladies to establish the employees within the constructing, however they didn’t discover anybody. The one employees member residing on campus, Anas Yushau, hid in his bed room, scared because the drama unfolded.Shortly after, the bandits led the scholars – about 300 of them – alongside thorny paths for hours earlier than they settled someplace within the forest.

An unforgettable night time

Jangebe, a little-known group, grew to become well-known as native and worldwide media platforms broke the information the subsequent morning of one other mass abduction of scholars — the third in three months. Naturally, dad and mom have been distraught as the federal government scampered to avoid wasting the scholars amid immense public stress.

Three months earlier, in December 2020, bandits had kidnapped over 300 boys on the Authorities Boys Secondary Faculty, Kankara, Katsina State. They have been launched seven days later.

On 17 February 2021, one other group of bandits stormed the Authorities Science Faculty, Kagara, Niger State, abducting 42 college students and employees members.

Precisely per week later, the scholars have been launched and brought first to the Authorities Home in Gusau for a medical check-up earlier than being returned to their dad and mom. The federal government additionally shut down the varsity.

Within the case of the Jangebe faculty, the tragic incident marked the final time lots of the college students noticed a few of their classmates. It additionally marked the start of a sequence of occasions that altered the course of some college students’ lives.

In January, PREMIUM TIMES compiled an inventory of 104 college students and interviewed a few dozen of them, their dad and mom, and GGSS Jangebe employees members. It was discovered that a lot of the college students, now residing in numerous communities, had put that incident behind them and solid forward.

Whereas some are attending completely different secondary faculties, others are in tertiary establishments. Nevertheless, some haven’t been in a position to proceed their training within the aftermath of the incident.

‘Loads modified’

After coming back from the bandits’ captivity, Mrs Lawal remained at dwelling in Anka for some months earlier than she and different ladies have been requested to proceed their training on the Authorities Ladies Day Secondary Faculty (GGDSS), Anka. However she couldn’t cope at school.

“Loads modified after we got here again,” she mentioned. “Simply the character of education right here will not be the identical. I favor it there (GGSS Jangebe).”

Although she was then in SS 1 and would have sat for the Senior Faculty Certificates Examination (SSCE) by 2024, she dropped out and married in December 2022.

When she narrated this story in January, 4 years after the incident, her life had modified drastically. She was not a lady – she was now a secondary faculty dropout, a spouse, and the mom of an 11-month-old son, a selection she mentioned felt okay on the time.

Fatima Musa, 18, additionally enrolled at GGDSS Anka and sat the WASSCE in 2024. Nevertheless, she hasn’t thought-about additional training and even checked her examination outcomes.

“After we wrote (WASSCE), there’s no cash to say I’ll apply for admission or something. That’s why,” she mentioned.

Twenty of the 104 college students whose particulars this newspaper compiled didn’t full secondary faculty training.

Insecurity and Training

Within the final decade, insecurity in Northern Nigeria has affected training, from the shutting of colleges to the kidnapping of scholars.

For the reason that first recorded mass abduction of 276 ladies at Authorities Ladies Secondary Faculty, Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram terrorists in 2014, greater than 1,700 college students and academics have been kidnapped in Northern Nigeria, based on information compiled by SBM Intelligence.

As mass abduction of scholars decreased in Boko Haram’s stronghold within the North-east, it has grown within the North-west with the rise of banditry in rural communities, with Zamfara as essentially the most affected state.

PREMIUM TIMES reported final 12 months how years of insecurity and mass abductions within the area have crippled primary training and led to the closure of over 60 major and secondary faculties.

Based on the United Nations Academic, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Nigeria has over 20 million out-of-school youngsters, with the ‘degenerating safety’ scenario within the area described as a serious driver.

Not all gloomy

Nevertheless, a number of the kidnapped GGSS Jangebe ladies continued education and are excelling.After her major faculty in Anka, Aisha Nasir, now 17, enrolled at GGSS Jangebe in 2020. She was in JSS2 after they have been kidnapped.

“I resumed on Sunday, and the kidnapping occurred on Thursday,” she recalled.Whereas in captivity, Aisha, now 17, was one of many youngest and was chargeable for fetching water whereas the older college students cooked.

“They prepare dinner rice and beans. We fetch water, they usually put our portion in a sack,” she mentioned.

Once they returned, Miss Nasir mentioned she didn’t take into consideration going again to highschool as a result of she “began getting disinterested.”

Nevertheless, she was compelled to re-enroll at GGDSS Anka. “Regularly, I began getting once more,” she mentioned.Now, in SS3, she is going to sit the Senior Faculty Certificates Examination (SSCE) this 12 months.

Some months after their return dwelling, there was an announcement in Anka for all the women from GGSS Jangebe to converge at a location near the home of the district head. There, the scholars have been suggested to not lose hope in training due to what had occurred to them.

“They informed us it was destiny, and it may’ve occurred to anybody,” Firdausi Sani, one of many college students, mentioned.However Ms Sani’s dad and mom took her to a non-public faculty the place she is now in SS1.

Past Secondary Faculty

Farida Lawali’s dad and mom aren’t one to depart their daughter with out training. Shortly after the scholars’ launch from captivity, Farida’s dad and mom took her to the Authorities Ladies Secondary Faculty, Maru, regardless that she wished to stop education. “It wasn’t as much as a month (after the discharge),” she recalled. “My father wished me to go to highschool so he took me there (GGSS Maru).”

“It wasn’t as much as a month,” she recalled. “My father wished me to go to highschool, so he took me there (GGSS Maru).”

“We have been thrown into unhappiness throughout their abduction, however we lastly admitted it as her destiny as destined by God. We have been excited after they obtained again safely. So, we determined that she would return to highschool instantly,” Farida’s mom, Ruqayya Muhammad, recalled.

In 2023, Ms Lawali (not associated to Sadiya) sat for WASSCE and was provided admission into the Zamfara State Faculty of Training Maru, the place she studied for a Nationwide Certificates of Training (NCE) in Main Training. In December 2024, she sat her last examinations on the faculty and is awaiting her outcomes.“Now that she’s carried out along with her NCE, we’re pleased that we gave her the inspiration of training,” Farida’s mom added.

Final 12 months, Zainab Ibrahim sat the Senior Faculty Certificates Examination (SSCE) and is now learning for a Nationwide Diploma in Medical Laboratory Science and Group Well being at Sarkin Zamfara Ahmadu Faculty of Well being Sciences and Know-how. Nevertheless, she plans to register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to hunt admission into the Federal College, Gusau.

“I need to examine Nursing, however my father desires me to review Medical Laboratory Science. So, I began at Sarkin Zamfara Faculty of Well being,” she mentioned.

GGSS Jangebe Right this moment

On a Tuesday morning in January at GGSS Jangebe, a few dozen ladies in mint inexperienced robes, trousers, and flowing white hijab walked by means of a slender walkway surrounded by bushes in the direction of blocks of buildings that have been as soon as their hostels.

They gazed with amusement and intermittent chuckles on the mud and cobwebs protecting the hostel’s partitions, flooring, and bunks — the one remnants of the constructing.

“This was our room,” considered one of them pointed at a corridor, nearly excitedly. It was their first time on the hostels since their abduction 4 years in the past.

The scholars have been among the many few who returned to GGSS Jangebe after it reopened in April 2022. The vast majority of the scholars who got here from completely different communities not faculty right here. Earlier than it was reopened, the Zamfara State Authorities transformed the boarding faculty right into a each day faculty, making it unimaginable for college kids from distant to attend.

For the reason that conversion, the varsity has seen much less pupil inhabitants, the vice-principal, Nuradden Sulaiman, informed PREMIUM TIMES.

“We used to have over 1000 college students, however we at present have lower than 500,” he mentioned. “We now have 10 lessons. However solely 9 are occupied.”

Other than the deserted hostels behind the block of lecture rooms, the varsity confirmed no indicators of the horror that occurred there 4 years in the past. The college constructing, lecture rooms, and furnishings, as seen by PREMIUM TIMES, seem intact.

The college has a science laboratory with burettes, pipettes, and human skeleton anatomy fashions. It additionally has a pc laboratory with over 30 desktop computer systems, regardless that they appeared deserted.

Mr Sulaiman mentioned the computer systems weren’t used as typically as obligatory as a result of lack of fixed electrical energy.

“We use them for practicals, and we have now a generator, however as a result of excessive price of fueling it, we will’t at all times afford to gas it,” he mentioned.

Regardless of the electrical energy challenges, employees and college students say they imagine the safety scenario in the neighborhood has improved.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Analyzing social media claims linking USAID to terrorism, meals insecurity in Nigeria

Based on the vice-principal, the safety scenario in the neighborhood has improved for the reason that abduction.Mr Sulaiman has many expectations for the varsity’s operations. He fondly remembers how the varsity was when he was first posted there in 2020.

“If doable, the boarding system ought to resume,” he mentioned.However for Sadiya Lawal, GGSS Jangebe is the perfect classroom she may by no means return to.

Web page deliberate and produced by: Aaron Cole