Insecurity and Challenges of Sustainable Quality Secondary School Education in North-central, Nigeria

Within the past few years, the emergence of insurgency groups, violent extremist organisations and bandits have threatened quality education in northern Nigeria – a region grappling with poverty, girl-child marriage and phenomenal number of out-of-school children. These groups have attacked and destroyed school facilities, kidnapped school children and created fear and panic across communities in northern Nigeria. These attacks have had consequential impacts on education. This study examines insecurity and the challenges it pose to quality secondary education in north-central Nigeria. The study utilised survey and descriptive survey research designs. Stratified sampling technique was used to select numbers of schools in four states within the north central based on school type (federal, states, private) and school security guards. The study population consisted of education stakeholders including secondary school principals, school teachers, quality assurance officers and school security guards. Multi-stage random sampling procedure was used in selecting 400 respondents for the study. Random sampling was deployed to select the number of respondents (77 school principals, 200 school teachers, 72 quality assurance inspector, and 51 school security guards). The research questions were answered using mean standard deviation. Findings revealed that insecurity had significant impact on monitoring, evaluation and the teaching-learning process in north central Nigeria. The study submits that insecurity is a threat to quality secondary education in north-central Nigeria. The study recommends deployment of technology in quality control in the education sector as well as adoption of the Safe School Initiative at the State and local government level across the region in order to make secondary school security community driven.