Principals of Federal Unity Colleges have called on the Federal Government to establish a coordinated national framework for sustaining academic activities in schools affected by insecurity, warning that security-related disruptions could have lasting consequences for students’ education.
The principals also urged the government to address persistent challenges confronting the colleges, including inadequate security infrastructure, shortages of qualified teachers, insufficient funding and poor staff welfare.
The call was made by the Chairman of Principals of Federal Unity Colleges, Alhaji Shehu Dahiru, at the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the association in Abuja, held under the theme, “Nigerian Schools in the Midst of Insecurity: Building Safe, Resilient and Sustainable Learning Environments.”
Dahiru stressed that protecting schools required a comprehensive approach involving school administrators, teachers, parents, students, host communities, traditional institutions, security agencies and development partners.
He advocated stronger physical and operational security measures, including improved perimeter fencing, access control, adequate lighting, surveillance systems, emergency communication channels, early-warning mechanisms and regular security drills.
According to him, schools must develop security arrangements that enable them to respond effectively to emerging threats while ensuring that disruptions do not permanently undermine the education of affected students.
“We must build a security system in which every stakeholder understands their role in protecting our schools.
No institution can guarantee the safety of its students in isolation.
“The protection of our schools is an investment in education, national development and the future of Nigerian children,” he said.
The principals’ chairman also called for improved funding and attention to teachers’ welfare, noting that security interventions must be accompanied by measures to strengthen the overall capacity of Federal Unity Colleges to deliver quality education.
Earlier, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, urged principals to strengthen partnerships with host communities, traditional rulers, youth organisations and other local stakeholders to improve intelligence-sharing and prevent attacks on schools.
Ahmad identified community-based intelligence as one of four strategic pillars being pursued by the Federal Ministry of Education to improve school safety, stressing that government policies and security personnel alone could not adequately address the threats posed by banditry, insurgency and kidnapping.
She urged principals to establish functional relationships with surrounding communities, maintain effective communication with security agencies, conduct regular safety drills and promptly report credible threats.
“True institutional security cannot exist in a vacuum. A school must be organically connected to its host community,” the minister said.
She explained that communities with a strong sense of ownership of nearby schools could serve as an important early-warning network by identifying suspicious activities and alerting relevant authorities before threats escalate Ahmad described principals as frontline commanders in the government’s school safety efforts, emphasising that the effectiveness of security policies and budgetary interventions depended largely on their leadership, vigilance and implementation at the institutional level.
