The Adamawa State Government has commenced the fencing of government secondary schools, particularly those in rural communities, as part of efforts to protect pupils and teachers from kidnapping and other security threats.
The Executive Chairman of the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Commission (ASUBEC), Dr Murtala Umar, disclosed this to journalists in Yola on Thursday, October 8, 2026.
Umar said the administration of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri was concerned about the safety of pupils and teachers, adding that fencing work was ongoing across government secondary schools in the state.
Security Training for Teachers
“Fencing of all government secondary schools is ongoing now. Watertight security is going to be provided, and teachers are going to be trained on security tips to enable them to detect when a problem is coming and take proactive measures,” he said.
The initiative comes amid persistent concerns about the safety of schools in Nigeria, particularly in rural communities where inadequate security infrastructure can leave pupils and teachers vulnerable to attacks and abductions.
Umar also announced plans to recruit an additional 3,000 teachers to address staffing shortages in the state’s education sector.
Community-Based Teacher Recruitment
He explained that the recruitment would be community-based to ensure that teachers employed for rural schools were drawn from the communities where the schools were located.
According to him, teachers posted to rural areas often transfer to towns, leaving schools in remote communities with insufficient staff.
“The next recruitment is strictly going to be community-based. This is because when teachers are recruited and posted, they transfer to towns, so the schools in rural areas are left with little staff,” Umar said.
He added that the strategy was designed to ensure that schools in rural communities had enough teachers to support learning.
Progress in Infrastructure and Staffing
The ASUBEC chairman also said the state had accessed and utilised funding from the Universal Basic Education Commission, which had supported the construction of more than 25,000 classrooms across schools in Adamawa.
Umar further disclosed that the state recruited more than 4,000 teachers between 2021 and 2023 and had recently concluded another recruitment exercise involving 5,000 teachers.
The government’s latest measures combine physical security improvements with plans to strengthen staffing in schools, particularly in rural areas. However, the fencing exercise is ongoing, and the announcement does not establish that all government secondary schools have already been secured or that the measures will eliminate the risk of kidnapping.
