[Photos] Nigeria: Chibok schools reopen under tight security

A Nigerian journalist in the north east reports that schools that were closed as a result of the incessant attacks by insurgent group Boko Haram have reopened.

Femi Owolabi who is currently in Chibok, in Borno state, posted pictures of children heading to school, an ongoing class session and other pictures showing pupils and students on a school compound.

But one striking picture shows a stringent search conducted on pupils as they filed into the school premises.

Accompanying the pictures he wrote, ‘‘Ladies and gentlemen, guests and friends, I feel excited to announce to you that public primary schools and especially, the Junior Day Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, are now opened after years that academic activities have been shut down due to Boko Haram insurgency.’‘

He reserved praise for the Nigerian Army Command in Chibok who he said had continually assured them of ‘‘maximum protection and security for our children.’‘

He however bemoaned the fallen standards that have resulted over the years that some pupils had to stay without any education. “Some of them cannot even write their names correctly again,” one of the teachers told me.

“They’ve been out of school for years, and most of them have been on the farm with their parents,” he added.

Photos courtesy: Femi Owolabi (Facebook)