Chibok Parents Declare Their Kids Would Be Better Without Going To School

More than a month after some members of Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, abducted over two hundreds secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno State, parents in the community are still afraid to let their kids or wards go back to school.

According to an investigative report carried out by CNN and posted on their website, most of the parents prefer to keep their children in their homes despite it's the beginning of the second semester in public schools across Nigeria.

It is gathered that in most of the schools in Borno state, the desks are empty and the playing fields are quiet. Only the walls of the classrooms, library and science laboratories remain.

It could be recalled that one of the reasons the terror group gave for their evil acts is that western education is a sin and nowhere has that message more clearly hit home than in Chibok after the kidnapping of the schoolgirls. 

* CNN's reporter talking to one of the schoolgirls that escaped being kidnapped by Boko Haram

More than 200 of the girls who were abducted on that fateful night on 14 April, 2014 are still missing.

Daniel Muvia, a resident of Chibok who witnessed the attack on his village, says he is too scared to take his daughters to school. Since the attack he's kept them at home, where he felt they would be safer.

"I am scared of sending them to school," he says. "I'm not feeling good that they're at home and I'm not feeling good to send them to school because of the attacks."

* The secondary school in Chibok where hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted by terrorists

Muvia's comments represent what almost every parent in Chibok are going through. Majority of the parents told newsmen that they are torn between education for their child and their family's safety.

Muvia said he would not be able to forgive himself if he sent his daughter to school and then heard that something had happened to her.

"No one can afford losing their daughter," he says.

Former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who is now the U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, says in an interview conducted by CNN recently that 10.5 million children in Nigeria are yet to go to school and that the high levels of illiteracy are now an economic problem.

* Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau

Analysts are now saying that if the Boko Haram attacks on schools continue unabated then those levels of illiteracy will significantly increase, further compromising the future of the country's young people.

One of the girls, who managed to escape from Boko Haram on the night they were taken from their dormitory, says she hopes to go back to school soon so she can fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor.

The unnamed girl, who looked very scared, during the interview said, "If in Chibok, I'll never go again."

For Muvia, he prays a day will come when his daughters will be free to pursue their futures and become lawyers, doctors or engineers.

"When I see all these people doing their jobs, I have the desire -- or the hope -- that I want my children to be like them," he says.

"I have very high hopes for them."  

Source: Legit.ng