This article was culled from The Safe School Manual published by Exam Ethics Marshals International. This series is continued from the next episode.
The United Nations reported a rise in the number of children globally affected by fighting in 2017. The UN annual report on Children and Armed Conflicts documented more than 21,000 grave violations of children’s rights between January and December 2017, compared with 15,500 the previous in 2016. The report observed that “among the most significant violations registered in 2017 were killing and maiming, recruitment and use and attacks on schools and hospitals, all of which registered a rise in comparison to the previous year”
The implication of the UN report is that security risks for schools together with the fatal consequences will continue to rise in the coming years. The rising level of insecurity is complicated for educational institutions by complex interplay of terrorist attacks, insurgency, kidnapping, campus cultism, fire hazards, medical emergencies, flood, armed robbery, cybercrime, scams, political violence, communal clashes and other natural and man-made emergencies.
TERRORIST ATTACKS.
Attacks on schools are usually viewed in the context of external attacks master minded by terrorists and other psychopaths.
Reports indicate that between 1970 and 2017, there were more than 3,800 terrorist attacks targeting educational institutions across 110 countries. Schools have been attacked in many parts of the world including USA, Sweden, Kenya, Pakistan, China, Russia, Germany, Belgium, etc
In Pakistan alone, 753 educational institutions were targeted between 1970 and 2017. Of these incidents, 96% (724) took place between 2004 and 2017. In the Penshawar attack, December 16, 2014, one hundred and fifty (150) pupils, students and teachers were killed. Hundreds were injured. In Colombia, over 700 teachers were killed between 2009 and 2018 and more than 1,000 received death threats. On 2 April 2015, gunmen stormed the Garissa University College in Kenya, killed 148 students, injured 79 others and took over 700 students hostage.
The Beslam School Massacre in Russia started on September 1, 2004, lasted three days, involved illegal imprisonment of over1,100 people as hostages (including 777 children) and ended with the deaths of 334.
On October 2015, 21 year old man attacked Kroman School in Trollhattan, Sweden, with a sword. He killed a teaching assistant and a male student, stabbed another male student and a teacher.
In Nigeria , terrorists have attacked schools in Chibok, Mamudu, Gulba, Buni Yadi, Kano, Potiskum and other towns. On April 13, 2018, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a report to the effect that at least 2,295 teachers had been killed in the North East Zone of Nigeria alone since 2009. The report also said that more than 1, 000 children had been abducted and 1,400 schools destroyed.
