EFFECTS OF BANDITRY ON ACCESS TO EDUCATION IN ZAMFARA STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Banditry, Education, Access, Displacement, School Enrolment, Educational Quality, Zamfara State.Abstract
Banditry in Zamfara State, has affected thousands of school-aged children leading to educational exclusion and disrupting access to formal schooling. This study employs a qualitative research design and relied purely on secondary data, synthesizing peer-reviewed articles, institutional reports, and conflict monitoring databases to examine the patterns and extent of displacement, trends in primary and secondary school enrolment, and the effects of banditry on educational quality between 2020 and 2025 as the main objectives of the study. The study adopted the State Fragility Theory and interprets banditry as both a symptom and amplifier of state weaknesses, where authority deficits has contributed to violence, disruption of service delivery, which undermines community trust in education. Findings reveal that banditry displacement pattern is concentrated in the rural area of the state there by affecting 40 to 50% of internally displaced children leading to fragmented access to education. The study also discovered that primary and secondary school enrolment trend declined from 30 to 50% due to pre-existing cultural and economic factors with banditry acting as the major driver. The study proffered the following recommendations: The government should set up school protection committees comprising parents, teachers, and traditional leaders to monitor and report any suspicious activities to the security agencies; introduce mobile and radio-based learning programs for displaced children; and integrate technical and vocational education to curb banditry by providing skills for self-reliance for unemployed youths.
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