Assessment of the Influence of Banditry and Kidnapping on School Attendance and Academic Perfomance of Secondary School Students in Niger State

Abstract

Every government can only flourish and directs it activities towards development only in the atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Education is regarded as the tool for any meaningful development as it provide the manpower for any economic, social, political and technological advancement. However, education in Niger State has been bedeviled with high state of insecurity ranging from kidnapping, banditry, mass abduction of school children, kidnapping of students in exchange for ransom. In the wake of this abduction the most affected local government in Niger State are Rafi, Mariga, Magama and Shiroro, that is why these areas have witnessed a rapid fall in the number of student attending school and the academic performance of students. This paper examine the implication of banditry and kidnapping on school attendance and provide an over view of the nature of banditry and kidnapping in Niger State. Descriptive survey design was used and the population of the study comprises of 3,135 teachers from the three geo-political zones.
The sample size of the study is 384 based on Krejcie and Morgan table. The instrument used in data collection was a structured questionnaire. The hypothesis was tested using Chi- square at 0.05 of level of significant. The hypothesis was rejected as the critical value was less than the calculated value. Thus, the study concluded that insecurity has a significant influence on secondary education
in Niger State, the paper also concluded that insecurity challenges have contributed to poor academic performance of secondary school students in Niger State. . It was therefore, recommended that, Federal Government in collaboration with Niger State Government and other stakeholders in education should come up with security strategies that will help in protecting the
lives of students and staff in our secondary school in order to minimize the challenges of insecurity on our educational system. Niger State Government should ensure they put in place appropriate security measures in secondary schools in Niger State. This can be achieved by renovating all school facilities such as fence, provision of security personnel as well as surveillance equipment such as CCTV Cameras to monitor and prevent any form of attack on students and teachers.