The Executive Secretary, Benue State Teaching Service Board, Prof. Wilfred Uji, said the persistent herdsmen attacks on Benue communities, had disrupted the school calendar and forced 300,000 children out of school.

Uji, who disclosed this at a press conference in Makurdi, lamented that the crisis had adversely affected the educational system, especially the primary and secondary school system.

He said Government Secondary School, Gbajimba; Government Secondary School, Agasha; Government Science Secondary School, Logo; and Government Secondary School, Ukum, among others, had been burnt or closed down completely by herdsmen.

Uji added that secondary school students and primary school pupils in public schools in Apa, Agatu, Makurdi, Okpokwu and Ogbadibo had also been forced to leave their schools.

“I pray this should stop; otherwise, it is going to be a nightmare. The situation in the IDP camps is so overwhelming that even the mobile schools we established in the camps, it is difficult to control the teaching and learning process as a result of overcrowding. Students, who are displaced and now taking WAEC, even though we moved them to safer centres, are not finding it easy. It’s painful watching students from the IDP camps coming to sit for exams,” Uji said.

The Executive Secretary noted that the situation had been worsened by threats to teachers. “We are working hard within our lean resources to see how these children can return to their schools and also equip the teachers with necessary intellectual capacity to help in the rehabilitation of the students. Take it that a whole school year has been destroyed and when you come back, you are thinking of recovering the whole year lost and it will take more than five to 10 years to recover. The long-term consequences are there. In 100 years to come, our zone will be educationally backward when compared to other zones.’’