The Federal Government has announced plans to introduce technology-based measures, including panic buttons connected directly to Safe School command centres, to enable rapid response whenever schools face security threats.

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja when he paid a courtesy call on the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Professor Ahmed Audi.

According to a Save the Children International report, there were at least 10 significant incidents of school abductions between 2024 and 2025, resulting in the kidnapping of 670 children from schools.

Dr Alausa emphasized that the safety of children is a shared responsibility, noting that the Civil Defence Corps had been designated to lead school protection efforts, particularly after the Chibok abduction in 2014.

He, however, acknowledged gaps in coordination and institutional structure, revealing that a full-fledged Department of Safe School Initiative is being established at the Federal Ministry of Education to strengthen oversight and nationwide coordination.

Accompanied by top echelon of the Ministry, the Minister underscored the need for sustainable funding to support school security.

He disclosed that discussions are ongoing to develop innovative financing mechanisms that would guarantee dedicated and uninterrupted funding for the Safe School Initiative. Reaffirming President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to safeguarding children, he said the Ministry of Education would now take the lead in coordinating efforts, working closely with security agencies and relevant ministries to ensure a safer learning environment nationwide.

He said: “We’re setting up a full-fledged department of safe school initiative at the Federal Ministry of Education. And this department will have several units under it. But the key function of this department will be to coordinate the entire Safe School Initiative for the entire country.

“And that coordination will start with coordinating more effectively with the NSCDC. The command center that we’ll be seeing today, we came here to really assess the level of technology at this command center. But we would, after that, put a team together with the CG on how to now cascade things”.

In his response, Prof. Audi disclosed that nationwide vulnerability assessments carried out by the Corps showed that over 60,000 schools were without sufficient security measures.

The Commandant-General explained that the affected schools, spread across the country, were exposed to security risks and required immediate intervention to ensure the safety of students and the protection of their learning environments.

“These schools are porous in the sense that there was no presence of security men or no fences in those schools, so that gave us a guide on how now to develop our operational strategy in terms of mutual security and safety for the schools.

”And I tell you, in doing that, what we did first was to provide the data and submit the same reports to the Federal Ministry of Education,” he said.

Audi pointed to insufficient funding as a significant obstacle, explaining that only a small portion of the needed resources had been made available for school protection efforts.

He described the circumstances as difficult, stressing that operating the centre amid financial limitations had been far from easy.

He assured the minister of the Corps’ resolve to strengthen collaboration in order to ensure safe and secure learning environments for students across the country.