Governance and School Safety Failures in Nigerian Public Secondary Schools and Reforms

Abstract

Public secondary schools in Nigeria can no longer be described as safe learning environments. Over the last decade, insurgency, banditry, mass abductions, and violence within school communities have made this plain. This paper examines the governance failures behind the problem, in particular how poor safety administration has weakened school management and disrupted learning in public secondary schools.

The study draws on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Transformational Leadership Theory and uses a qualitative, conceptual, and policy-analysis approach. Central to the analysis is the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools (Federal Ministry of Education, 2021). The findings are not encouraging. A wide gap separates what the policy says from what schools experience. School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) exist largely on paper, and safety infrastructure is underfunded. Principals increasingly spend their time managing security crises rather than providing instructional leadership, which affects teacher morale, staff retention, and female enrolment.

These outcomes are the products of governance failure, not accident. The paper recommends that state education boards set up a dedicated School Security and Safety Trust Fund to decentralise security financing, and that school boards make budget approvals conditional on verified SBMC security audits, which Section 3.2 of the national policy already requires. Safety in Nigerian public secondary schools will not improve in any lasting way until the structures responsible for policy implementation, accountability, and safety financing are themselves reformed and made to work.