Zurray Integrated Services Ltd has called for an urgent redesign of the Federal Government’s Safe Schools Initiative, warning that more than a decade after its establishment, a significant gap remains between the programme’s policy ambition, financial architecture and actual protection outcomes for Nigerian learners and teachers.
In a statement released in Abuja on Sunday by the Organisation’s Lead Consultant, Oyigu Onuche Elijah, Zurray Integrated Services Ltd said its policy intelligence assessment found that the Safe Schools Initiative is facing significant implementation challenges, including discontinuous funding, fragmented institutional accountability, weak execution transparency and static risk targeting, warning that the programme requires urgent redesign to ensure that financial commitments translate into measurable protection for Nigerian schools, learners and teachers.
The call follows a policy intelligence assessment conducted by the Policy Intelligence and Public Sector Reform Practice of Zurray Integrated Services Ltd admits multiple attacks on school children, which examined the initiative’s financing, institutional coordination, implementation performance and ability to respond to changing patterns of school-related insecurity.
The assessment finds that while the Safe Schools Initiative was conceived in 2014 as a national response to attacks on schools, and the Federal Government subsequently developed a National Plan on Financing Safe Schools valued at approximately N144.8 billion for the 2023–2026 period, school abductions, closures and disruptions to learning have continued in several high-risk parts of the country.
“The central issue is no longer whether Nigeria has a Safe Schools policy. The issue is whether the current financing and implementation architecture is capable of producing measurable protection at school level,” Zurray said.
According to the assessment, five interlocking weaknesses are undermining the initiative: discontinuous budgeting, a security-heavy spending pattern, weak execution transparency, fragmented institutional ownership and static risk targeting in the face of a mobile threat environment.
The financing record is particularly concerning. Of the ₦15 billion reportedly released in 2023, the bulk was allocated to security agencies, while the Federal Ministry of Education received a comparatively smaller share. More significantly, the assessment notes that no dedicated allocation was made for Safe Schools financing in the 2024 and 2025 federal budgets, leaving two of the four years covered by the national financing plan without continuous dedicated federal funding.
Zurray further notes that available programme data indicates that more than 42,000 primary and secondary schools across northern Nigeria remain without perimeter fencing, including thousands in states that have experienced repeated attacks. The company said this raises fundamental questions about the link between budgetary commitments, programme expenditure and physical protection outcomes.
The assessment also identifies diffused institutional accountability as a major challenge. With seven or more federal agencies sharing responsibilities under the initiative, but without a single clearly results-accountable lead supported by a publicly accessible results framework, the programme risks producing parallel reporting lines rather than a unified delivery chain.
“A multi-agency programme without a clear results owner can easily become a programme where everyone participates but no single institution is fully accountable for the outcome,” the assessment states.
Zurray’s comparative analysis of Kenya and Mozambique further shows that school protection in conflict-affected settings is achievable when financing is continuous, communities are structurally embedded in the protection architecture, and school operations are aligned with verified security conditions.
Kenya’s community policing experience demonstrates the value of local trust and early warning, while Mozambique’s phased reopening approach underscores the importance of stabilisation before the resumption of school activity in active threat corridors.
Based on its assessment, Zurray Integrated Services Ltd recommends an urgent redesign of the Safe Schools Initiative around six priorities:
- A dedicated, multi-year Safe Schools appropriation line protected from annual funding disruptions;
- A rebalanced allocation structure that gives greater weight to school infrastructure, fencing, lighting, communication systems and safe-room construction;
- A publicly accessible school-level dashboard tracking funds disbursed and protective works completed;
- A single lead accountable agency, most logically the Federal Ministry of Education, with the authority to coordinate and report on behalf of partner institutions;
- A dynamic risk-targeting model capable of adjusting protective resources as attack patterns shift across states;
- Structured community protection committees at school and ward level to strengthen early warning, community ownership and local response capacity.
The company said it is prepared to support the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Assembly and relevant government institutions in translating these recommendations into an implementable framework through its policy intelligence, public sector reform and technology advisory practice.
“Protecting schools is not only a security obligation; it is a national development imperative. Nigerian children cannot learn in fear, and the country cannot continue to fund a programme where expenditure and outcomes remain disconnected from the purpose for which the programme was created,” Zurray said.
Zurray Integrated Services Ltd believes that the Safe Schools Initiative can still be made effective, but only if Nigeria moves from fragmented spending and episodic response to a coherent, transparent and continuously funded protection model.
Issued by:
Oyigu Elijah
For
ZURRAY INTEGRATED SERVICES LTD
Policy Intelligence and Public Sector Reform Practice
