Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, says over 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 others displaced in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in the last nine years as a result of insurgency.

He also revealed that an estimated 1,500 schools have been destroyed since 2014, with over 1,280 casualties among teachers and students, thereby devastating the school system.

Adamu made the revelation in his keynote address at a Workshop for Review of the Legal Framework on the Safe School Declaration; an initiative for Protection of Education from Attack in Nigeria on Wednesday was organized by the Federal Ministry of Education with support from its development partners.

He said there is an urgent need to protect education from attacks, pointing out that without access to quality learning, the children are not only being deprived of education, they are also being robbed of future opportunities which will affect the entire society.

Represented by Sonny Echono, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Adamu stressed that the idea that education can and should continue during and despite conflict was not evident for many people, especially compared to basic life- saving services such as medical assistance, shelter, food or water and sanitation.

He said that by joining Nigeria in the struggle to address the challenge, the partners have committed to undertake common-sense steps to make it less likely that students, teachers and schools will be attacked, and to mitigate the negative consequences when such attacks occur.

Earlier in a welcome address, Justina Ibe , Director of Education Support Services, who represented the Permanent Secretary, said there was need to develop a sound legal framework to ensure proper implementation of the Safe School Initiatives for protecting schools from attacks.

According to him, the workshop was meant to formally inform stakeholders about the legal review research study on the protection of education from attack and to interact and share experiences with countries that have implemented the Safe School Declaration.

Officials were invited from some federal government educational institutions that have been victims of attack by insurgents to give detail account of how the attacks were carried out on their institutions.

Representatives of International Development Partners and other organizations presented goodwill messages at the occasion, expressing their commitment to the declaration to protect education from attack.