FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF INSECURITY ON NIGERIAN SCHOOLS. THE WAY FORWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION

Abstract

Insecurity has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges confronting the Nigerian education system, with far-reaching financial consequences across governance, communities, and households. Persistent attacks on schools, abductions of students, destruction of infrastructure, and prolonged closures disrupt learning processes and impose significant economic burdens nationwide. At the macro level, the Nigerian government is compelled to divert scarce resources from education to security operations, thereby reducing budgetary allocations for infrastructure development and quality improvements. This misallocation hampers progress toward international education financing benchmarks and weakens the country’s human capital development agenda. At the meso level, communities and schools bear additional expenses for security measures such as fencing, hiring guards, and rehabilitating destroyed facilities. Parent–Teacher Associations (PTAs) often finance these initiatives, which increases the cost of schooling and restricts access for vulnerable populations. At the micro level, households face rising expenditures linked to relocation, enrollment in safer schools, and psychosocial support for traumatized children, further deepening educational inequality. The cumulative effect of these financial strains undermines Nigeria’s efforts to build a sustainable and inclusive education system. This paper undertakes a multi-level analysis of the financial implications of insecurity on Nigerian schools and proposes context-specific solutions for sustainable education financing. By integrating macroeconomic, community, and household perspectives, the study provides insights into how insecurity undermines human capital formation and highlights pathways for resilience and policy reform.